
Gass B 5 1 23 5 

Book JE?L_ 

Copyright N° 

COPXR1GHT DEPOSIE 




Jf. %. h# 



STUDIES 



ON THE 



BOOK OF GENESIS 



BY 



H. B. PRATT 



SPANISH TRANSLATOR OF SEYMOUR'S "EVENINGS WITH THE ROMANISTS " ("NOCHES 
CON LOS ROMANISTAS"), AND AUTHOR OF THE "MODERN VERSION*' OF THE BIBLE 
IN SPANISH, AND ALSO OF " ESTUDIOS SOBRE EL LIBRO DEL GENESIS " AND OF 
" ESTUDIOS SOBRE EL LIBRO DEL EXODO." 



TRANSLATED FROM THE SPANISH 



" God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the 
world" (6V., u in order that the world be saved through him"). John 3 : 17. 



SOLD BY THE AMERICAN TRACT SOCIETY 

150 Nassau Street 

BOSTON NEW YORK CHICAGO 

1906 



3^ 



•35 



UBRARY of CONGRESS 

Two Conies Received 

SEP 4 1906 

,Gop^gm Entry 

CLASS CC XXc. No. 

' COPY B. 



Copyright, 1904, by 
H. B. PRATT. 



All rights reserved, 



> 



To the memory of my sainted wife 

Joanna Frances Gildersleeve 

companion of my youth and partner of 
my years of missionary service; whose 
crippled hands aided in the preparation 
of this book, both in its Spanish and its 
English forms, and whose unmurmuring 
and cheerful (i patience in tribulation," 
through years of protracted and intense suf- 
fering and of often disappointed hopes, has 
been to me a daily lesson, and tier serine 
trust in God tier Saviour a daily inspira- 
tion, I dedicate this volume. 

E. B. P. 
Jan. 25, 1906. 



"THE GLAD TIDINGS OF THE KINGDOM OP GOD" 

(a world-salvation). 

"We have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be 
the Saviour of the World." 1 John 4: 14. 

4 ' God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself. " 2 Cor. 5 : 19. 
' ' The bread which I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the 

LIFE OF THE WORLD." John 6 ' 51. 

' ' Thy Kingdom come. Thy will be done ; as in heaven, so on earth. " 
Matt. 6 : 10. 

"When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all his holy angels 
with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory, . . . and then 
shall the King say unto them on his right hand: Come, ye blessed of my 
Father, inherit (= take possession of) the Kingdom prepared for you 

(the just) FROM THE FOUNDATION OF THE WORLD." Matt. 25 : 31, 34. 

" Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth." Matt 5 :5. 
"We (Christians) according to his promise, look for new heavens 

AND A NEW EARTH, WHEREIN DWELLETH RIGHTEOUSNESS." 2 Pet. 3 : 13. 

"For yet a little while, and the wicked shall not be; yea, thou shalt 
diligently consider his place, and he shall not be (there — Alexander); 
but the meek shall inherit the earth, and shall delight themselves 
in the abundance of peace." Ps. 37 : 9, 10. 

"Why should it be esteemed a thing incredible with you that God 
should raise the dead ?" (Gr., raise up dead men.) Acts 26 : 8. 

"The Scripture preached beforehand the Gospel unto Abraham, say- 
ing: In thee shall all the nations (of the earth) be blessed." Gal.3:8. 

" God will restore the world, now fallen, into perfection." — Calvin. 

"I learn by inevitable inference from one of the most distinct articles 
of my creed, that as certainly as the dynasty of the fish was predeter- 
mined in the scheme of Providence to be succeeded by the higher dynasty 
of the reptile, and that of the reptile by the still higher dynasty of the 
mammal, so it was equally predetermined that the dynasty of responsi- 
ble, fallible man should be succeeded by the dynasty of glorified, 
immortal man." "Instead of one, we see many footprints, each in turn 
in advance of the print behind it, and on a higher level ; and founding at 
once on an acquaintance with the past, extended throughout all the 
periods of the geologists, and on that instinct of our nature whose pecu- 
liar function it is to anticipate at least one creation more, we must regard 
the expectation of ' ' new Heavens and a new Earth wherein dwelleth 
righteousness," as not unphilosophic, but, on the contrary, altogether 
rational and in accord with experience." — Hugh Miller, Testimony of 
the Rocks, pages 261 and 223. 



TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE 

The story of this translation is quickly told. After a half 
century of acquaintance with the Spanish tongue and more 
than fifty years of daily study of the Bible (during which time, 
he translated the Bible — "La Version Moderna" — from the orig- 
inal tongues into the Spanish language, for the American 
Bible Society), the author proposed, when retired from active 
missionary service, to continue his foreign missionary work 
in the preparation of Spanish Commentaries on the Old Testa- 
ment. The need could not be greater. Nothing of the kind had 
ever existed in the Spanish language till the publication of his 
Estudios sobre el Libro del Genesis, in Aug. 1902; and that vol- 
ume stands today, together with his Estudios sobre el Libro del 
Exodo, just issued from the press, as the only commentaries 
on any part of the Old Testament, for use among the 60,000,000 
of the Spanish-speaking world. Roman Catholic commentaries 
are only found in Latin. 

Important as Scripture Commentaries are, and indispensable 
as they must be to the rapid progress of the gospel in Spanish- 
speaking lands, it will be readily seen that the demand for 
them among the possible 50,000 Evangelical communicants (most 
of them very poor) found in Europe, America, North Africa 
and the former Insular possessions of Spain, including ministers 
and students for the ministry, is not sufficient to induce any 
publishing house to risk money in a work like mine; so that 
I am reduced to the necessity of doing all the work, and then 
raising all the money to print it. 

This I have found so difficult of accomplishment, in the 
two volumes already issued, that I have been led to translate 
the former into English, at the suggestion of esteemed friends, 
who represent that a volume so warmly received and com- 
mended in Spanish would be worth translating into English, 
and that the larger sales to be hoped for in this form would 
materially increase my own meager resources for contribut- 
ing to the success of this, the most needy department of the 
work of Spanish Evangelization. 



vi TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE 

This fact would of itself be an insufficient, and perhaps an 
unworthy motive for asking the patronage of the religious 
public, were it not that the book is believed to be one of in- 
trinsic merit — as the reader may see for himself by reading 
the commendations appended at the close of the volume — and as 
such, deserving of translation; since there is nothing of just 
this kind in our religious literature. So it may be service- 
able to the cause of Bible Christianity at home as well as abroad, 
it being thoroughly Evangelical and wholly unsectarian; as the 
hearty commendations of my brethren of all the different com- 
munions sufficiently attest. 

In addition to these, I may be permitted to quote the fol- 
lowing from a private letter sent me by the Rev. Dr. G. Fred- 
erick Wright, of Oberlin College, Ohio (whom I have never 
met, and on whose favorable regard I have no claim whatever), — 
a scientist of world-wide reputation, and second to none in his 
own special department, "The Harmony of Science and Re- 
ligion." Dr. Wright was kind enough to examine part of my 
work, and he writes me: "I have looked over your Study of 
the Book of Genesis with great interest. It is one of the best 
treatments of the subject that I have ever seen. Your critic 
who said that your statement on page 4 was not up to date 
did not know what he was talking about. Your original state- 
ment is correct. ... I hope you will succeed in publish- 
ing your work, so as to bring your interesting and able dis- 
cussion of this subject before the English-speaking public." 

To which the Rev. Dr. Daniel S. Gregory, General Secretary 
of The American Bible League, and Editor of The Bible Student 
and Teacher, adds: "It gives me peculiar pleasure to indorse 
what my friend Dr. Wright, of Oberlin, has said of your Com- 
mentary on Genesis. It is not only sound and instructive, but 
also eminently interesting; an immense advance on the works 
of Professor Marcus Dods and others, upon which the Chris- 
tian public are now obliged to depend. The American Bible 
League, of which I am General Secretary, is waiting for just 
such works as this, and stands ready to do its best to aid in 
calling the attention of its readers to them. ... It meets 
the needs of a large class who are just now looking about for 
something satisfactory on the Books of Moses. Your connection 
with those interested in the work among the Spanish-speak- 
ing peoples ought to add materially to the popularity of the 
work. The effort you have devoted to the task of presenting 
the comments in such language as to reach the mind3 of 



TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE vii 

Spanish-Americans should also make the work much clearer to 
all ordinary readers." 

The reader will find these Studies on the Book of Genesis 
different in many respects from all commentaries of our own, 
being designed for use in Roman Catholic countries, where 
nine-tenths of the people never saw a Bible, or ever heard it 
read in church or out of it, and who therefore need instruction 
over the whole field of Scripture teaching: but this very cir- 
cumstance is calculated to lend it additional interest to the 
general reader, and at the same time render the scope, purpose 
and purport of the .divine revelation much clearer to his own 
mind. I have found it .sometimes convenient to omit words and 
sentences, and at times an entire paragraph, which are of little 
or no interest to the English reader; and sometimes, for his 
better understanding of the matter in hand, I have added, in 
like manner, to the Spanish translation. These additions usually, 
but not always, are indicated by brackets, and the sign "Tr." 
after them. 

Of the views of Bible truth presented in these Studies, I need 
say but little here. Besides the general endorsement of my 
brethren of the different Evangelical Churches, contained in 
the commendations published at the end of the book, I may 
be permitted to say that the author is a strict constructionist of 
the word of God, viewed as a supernatural revelation of his 
will for our salvation, given by inspiration of the Holy Spirit, 
by the pens of inspired men; and as such it is to be interpreted, 
under the guidance of the same Spirit, according to the laws 
of a sanctified common sense and a believing heart, without 
regard to any one or other of the various theories of inspira- 
tion which men have devised and thought out. After more 
than fifty years of daily study of the Bible, and after trans- 
lating it into the Spanish tongue, and writing commentaries on 
the two first Books of the Old Testament, I have found no 
occasion to change or even modify the old orthodox belief in 
the divine inspiration of the Scriptures, in which I was brought 
up by my revered parents, who knew and had tested their 
value and truth; and which was well-nigh universally held 
by Evangelical Christians fifty years ago. 

As regards the verbal inspiration of the Scriptures in the 
original tongues, so often asserted, and with every variety of 
expression, in the Bible itself, I do not think that any other 
is deserving of the name of "inspiration"; though I do not by any 
means accept all the inferences drawn therefrom either by the 
friends or the enemies of inspiration. Whatever its adversaries 



viii TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE 

may think or say, inspired speech is as flexible and elastic as 
uninspired; as seen in the personal utterances of Jesus Christ. 
The arguments arrayed against it by its opponents will, I 
think, find their simplest and most effectual refutation by test- 
ing them on Christ himself. One and all they will be found to 
prove as much against the plenary inspiration of Jesus Christ, 
and the verbal inspiration of his personal utterances, as they 
do against that of Moses and the Prophets; and thus they 
refute themselves. And if any man would deny the verbal in- 
spiration of "God manifest in the flesh," he might with pro- 
priety write his name "Unbeliever" at once, and wake up to 
a better understanding of Christ's own words: "He that honoreth 
not the Son honoreth not the Father that sent him." John 
5:23. To deny the plenary and verbal inspiration of the teach- 
ings and sayings of Jesus, is in effect to deny it of the Father 
who sent him; for he says: "The words that I say unto you 
I speak not from myself, but the Father dwelling in me, he doeth 
his works." John 14: 10. And again: "For I have not spoken 
from myself; but the Father that sent me he gave me a com- 
mandment what I should say and what I should speak." John 
12: 49. So also in John 17: 8: "And the words that thou gavest 
me I have given them; and they have received them." And if 
a man purposely or practically denies plenary inspiration of the 
Father and the Son, it is a matter of small importance what he 
may think of the prophets and apostles. 

As regards the record, it is sufficient to say that nothing short 
of a perpetual miracle could have prevented errors of trans- 
cription (especially in the numbers of Scripture), or mistakes, 
and even well-meant alterations of the text, on the part of 
the copyists, during the long ages in which the inspired writ- 
ings were preserved and propagated by the pens of uninspired 
men; — the wonder is that they are so few, and in general of 
so little importance. But there is an infinite difference be- 
tween this admission, to which the author repeatedly calls at- 
tention in his comments whenever the occasion presents itself, 
and the allegation that they are in great part the errors, mistakes 
or mis-statements of the original writers. 

As to the plan of these Studies, it will be important to remark 
that the comment is not on words and phrases, or even on 
verses, but on paragraphs, and that consequently the Bible text 
enters into the commentary as an essential part of it. It should 
therefore always be read before the comment, unless the reader 
is already perfectly familiar with all its details. 

The author of this volume does not pretend to make an exposi- 



TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE ix 

tion of the Book of Genesis as it was understood by Moses and 
the prophets in the ancient time, but as he thinks we ought to 
understand it, "upon whom the ends of the world are come"; 
who should consequently reflect back upon it the light of a com- 
pleted revelation (since God's plan has been unchangeably one 
from the beginning), and who possess moreover the accumulated 
wisdom and experience of nineteen centuries of grace. The book 
thus may become an important contribution to our Evidences of 
Christianity, and will prove a useful addition to all Sabbath 
School and Y. M. C. A. libraries; a stimulating and awakening 
study to all Bible Classes; a Vademucum to large numbers of 
intelligent artizans and other working men, who, realizing the 
dangerous tendencies of religious skepticism, are feeling after 
a solid ground on which to build a secure and satisfying faith 
in the Bible as a revelation from God; a partial discovery to 
American Roman Catholics of what "Romanism at Home" really 
is, and to candid and thoughtful Jews a valuable "Introduction" 
to the study of New Testament Christianity. 

The Scripture text employed in this translation is that of 
the American Standard Edition of the Revised Bible, copyright 
1901, by Messrs. Thomas Nelson and Sons, and is used by their 
permission. 

With these prefatory remarks and explanations, I commit the 
volume, in its English dress (fully sensible of its defects as 
a translation, though the author's own) to God, and to the 
good will and benevolent regard of my brethren of all the 
Evangelical Churches; praying only that it may be as indulgently 
received in the latter form as in the original, and that it may 
assist some of his people, the heirs of the promised redemp- 
tion, to obtain clearer and more satisfactory views of that 
"eternal salvation," of which the crucified and risen Jesus "has 
become the Author unto all them that obey him." Heb. 5: 9. 

Hackensack, N. J., April 30, 1906. 



NOTES ON GENESIS. 



Page 

1. On Chaos 3 

2. On the Days of Creation 6 

3. On Moses and the Scientists 12 

4. On " Living Souls " 15 

5. On the Observance of the Seventh Day 23 

6. On the Patriarchal Traditions 'and the Documents of which 

Moses may have availed himself in the composition of 
this Book 26 

7. On the Covenant made with Adam 33 

8. On Death 41 

9. On the Character and Destiny of Our First Parents, Adam 

and Eve 49 

10. On the Death of Abel 57 

Translator's Note 1. — On Old Testament Eschatology 59 

11. On the Wife of Cain , , 63 

12. On Biblical Chronology 72 

13. On the Longevity of the Antediluvian Patriarchs 77 

14. On the Antediluvian Civilization 80 

15. On the Time which Noah Occupied in Building his Ark 89 

16. On the Bible Testimony with reference to the Universality of 

the Deluge 100 

17. On the Flood in General 108 

18. On the Miraculous Character of the Deluge and of Creation . . Ill 

19. On the Essential Unity of all the Different Races of Men 131 

20. On the Plain of the Jordan, the Vale of Siddim and the Cit- 

ies of the Plain 156 

21. On the Servitude^ and Oppression of the People of Israel in 

Egypt, and on the Time of their Sojourn there 179 

Translator's Note 2.— On Exodus 12: 40 183 

22. On the Angel of Jehovah 187 

Remarks on Baptismal Regeneration 198 to 201 

23. On The Elder 274 

24. On Marriage 288 

25. On the Sins of Old Testament Saints 330 

26. On Jacob's Vow 347 

Translator's Note 3.— On the Tithe 349 

27. On "Sheol" or "Hades" , 430 

28. On the Use of Wine in Egypt , . , . , . . , 453 



STUDIES ON THE BOOK OF GENESIS. 



EMBRACING A PERIOD OF 2369 YEARS; FROM 4004 TO 1635 B. C. (AC- 
CORDING TO THE COMMON CHRONOLOGY), RECKONING FROM THE 
CREATION OF MAN. ACCORDING TO THE LXX, FROM 5503 ( HALES, 
5411) B. C, TO THE SAME DATE. 



CHAPTER I. 

VR. I. CREATION AND ITS AUTHOR. 

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 

This sublime announcement teaches us that the universe was 
not ab eterno, but a creation, whose author is God — the God 
of the Bible, Jehovah: "In the beginning God created the heavens 
and the earth." It is understood, of course, that this was orig- 
inally a creation out of nothing, as is taught us in Heb. 11: 3: 
"The things that are seen were not made of things which do 
appear"; but it is not true, as is frequently asserted, that the 
word create of itself signifies to make out of nothing; although 
the Hebrew verb bara, in Kal (which is here employed), is 
used exclusively of the works of God, as distinguished from 
those of men. In verses 21 and 27 of this very chapter, the 
same word is used in regard to the creation of animals and of 
man, who were not made out of nothing. 

The epoch of the creation was "the beginning." It is an error, 
which we often hear repeated, to affirm that according to the 
Bible, this world of ours is about 6,000 years old. According 
to the common chronology, such was the epoch of the creation 
of the first man; but it is the emphatic declaration of Holy 
Scripture that God created the heavens and the earth (which 
in this place means, of course, the making out of nothing t>-9 
material of which the heavens and the earth were subsequently 
formed) "in the beginning." The epoch indicated by Moses 
bears a notable resemblance to, or, better said, a complete cor- 

1 



2 GENESIS 

respondence with that indicated by John in his Gospel, as the 
remotest point of time to which it is possible to carry back 
the creative work of the second person of the Trinity: "In the 
beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and 
the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. 
All things were made by him, and without him was not any- 
thing made, that was made." John 1: 1 — 3. This undoubtedly 
means to say that yonder, in the depths of eternity, before 
time began, the Word existed, the second person of the Trinity, 
with God, and as God; and that he was the Agent by whose 
means God created the heavens and the earth and all that in 
them is, as is plainly asserted in Col. 1: 16, 17: "For by him 
were all things created that are in heaven, and that are in 
earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or do- 
minions, or principalities, or powers; all things were created 
by him and for him; and he is before all things, and by him 
all things consist." For this reason, the Biblical phrases "be- 
fore the world was," and "before the foundation of the world," 
without any doubt (for nobody disputes it) mean to say, from 
eternity; before there was man or angel, earth or heavens. 

According to Moses, then, the earth, that is to say, the sub- 
stance of the earth, is of very ancient date, and in general terms 
and a wide sense it may be affirmed that the heavens and the 
earth have one and the same date; be it one million years away, 
or be it a thousand millions, it is all one. In the beginning of 
things, when God began the work of creating, "he created the 
heavens and the earth." "The beginning" is elegantly de- 
termined in Prov. 8: 22, 23, where the divine Wisdom, who 
personifies the second person of the Trinity, Author and Architect 
of all created things, says: 

"Jehovah possessed me in the beginning of his way, 
before his works of old, 

I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, 
before the earth was." 

Modern science is hard to please if this does not leave it 
completely satisfied in reference to the time necessary for the 
slowest and most lengthened transformations through which 
this world of ours has passed. 

In the text, vr. 1 forms a separate paragraph; and accord- 
ing to the interpretation of the best accredited expositors, an 
abyss of unknown duration mediates between the first verse and 
second; during which absolutely nothing is affirmed here with re- 
gard to the heavens and the earth, 



CHAPTER 1: 2—5 3 

1: 2 — 5. THE FIEST DAY. LIGHT. 

2 And the earth was waste and void ; and darkness was upon 
the face of the deep ; and the Spirit of God moved upon* the face 
of the waters. 

3 And God said, Let there be light; and there was light. 

4 And God saw the light, that it was good; and God divided 
the light from the darkness. 

5 And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called 
Night. And there was evening and there was morning, one day. 

*Or, was brooding upon. 

Fixing our attention now upon the earth alone — for the text 
leaves the heavens entirely aside — the book of Genesis affirms 
that at the beginning of this epoch, which Moses calls "the 
first day" the condition of the earth was a complete chaos 
("without form and void," or "waste and empty"), in which 
the constituents of air, earth, fire, water, and all the elements 
and potentialities, chemical and mechanical, which they contain, 
were in an embryonic condition, mingled in unspeakable confu- 
sion; which with admirable propriety is called the "abyss" 
("the deep"), wrapped in impenetrable darkness; and over this 
formless, watery mass the Spirit of God "brooded," as a; 
bird sits upon its eggs, brooding upon them, to bring forth its 
young. Thus according to the figurative expression of the 
sacred text, the Holy Spirit, third person of the Trinity, and 
immediate Author of life in all its forms, fecundated the 
chaotic mass of the earth, in order to produce this beautiful 
"earth which God has given to the children of men." Ps. 
115: 16. How many ages this process of incubation may have 
lasted, let science say, if it be able; for the Bible affirms noth- 
ing about it, one way or the other; but the visible result was 
that light entered slowly, to interrupt the eternal reign of 
darkness. 

[Note 1. — On Chaos — the original condition of the earth. 
It is the opinion of the greater part of scientific men, that 
originally the earth, with all the planets that revolve around 
our sun, were a part of it; at a time, almost infinitely remote 
("in the beginning," as says vr. 1), when this existed in the 
form of an extremely subtile matter which filled all the com- 
pass of the planetary spaces. This, according as it went 
on condensing by the attraction of gravitation, continued to 
increase in temperature — the indispensable effect of the com- 
pression of matter — until it became a heated and luminous but 
extremely rarefied body, which turned then, just as it does 
now, upon its own axis. The effect of this rapid, gyratory 
movement of so immense and so light a mass, was that the 



4 GENESIS 

different planets separated themselves successively from the 
mother sun, as it went on condensing and heating, forming 
themselves gyratory heated globes of the same material, and 
of much greater size than at present. These bodies, in condensing 
more and more were first converted into globes of fire, and 
later, on losing part of their heat (thrown off into the cold 
abysses of space), there formed on their surfaces a solid crust, 
which inclosed those fires under enormous pressure. The earthy 
crust of our globe, very thin at first, continued to thicken more 
and more; and this being an admirable non-conductor of heat, 
mitigated more and more the ardors of those internal fires. 

Such appears to have been the condition of things in our 
earth at the point indicated as the "first day." Owing to the 
heat, not even water could exist in its present form; and every- 
thing was kept in ebullition and incessant movement, by the 
action of the internal fires; while only a thin crust of solid 
matter separated between the fires within and "the waters" of 
vr. 2 without. 

It will help the reader to understand this, if he will bear 
in mind that in the opinion of most scientific men, the earthy 
crust of this our globe at the present time does not exceed 
forty or fifty miles in thickness; which, in virtue of its ac- 
tion as an admirable non-conductor, reduces the heat on the 
surface and allows the existence of those forms of matter 
that we know, and of organic life, both vegetable and ani- 
mal. The planet Jupiter, the largest of our system, has at 
present the temperature of boiling water; and although much 
older than our earth, it has not yet arrived at such a reduced 
temperature as that the forms of vegetable and animal life 
which we know would be able to bear it. The planet Saturn, 
though of greater age than Jupiter, is believed to be still in a 
state of chaos. 

The elevated temperature of the first day kept "the waters" 
of vr. 2 in such a state of ebullition as filled the dense and 
watery atmosphere (if such it may be called) with clouds 
so formidable and of such thickness, as that the light of a 
thousand suns could not possibly have penetrated them. The 
gradual reduction of these heats, the condensation of those 
aqueous vapors, and the gradual purification of the embryonic 
atmosphere, at last would give this result, that the light of 
the sun (the source of light then, the same as now, to the 
earth), could gradually penetrate and illumine that scene of 
universal desolation. The work of the first day was this; and 
the mere declaration of what was chaos, will be sufficient to 



CHAPTER 1: 2—5 5 

accredit the statement that the entrance of light was very- 
slow, and the -first day very long. There are other theories 
regarding chaos and the light of the first day, but this, I 
believe, is the most generally accepted, and the most com- 
prehensible. I do not give it for established fact, but only 
to clear up as best I can the meaning of the sacred text.] 

"And God said: Let there be light, and there was light." 
Accustomed as we are from childhood to believe that this was 
done in less time than it takes us to speak the words, there are 
many who find it very difficult to accept the idea that the work 
was slow. Poetically the Psalmist has said: 
"He spake, and it was done; 
he commanded, and it stood forth." Ps. 33: 9; 
or as the Modern Spanish Version has it (the italics are found in 
the text) : 

"He said: Be! and it was; 
he commanded and the universe stood forth." 
But the work was no less divine for being slow; as I believe 
the reader will see before he ends the chapter. The version 
which some prefer, "Let light be, and light was," is not cor- 
rect; because as "God is light" himself, and "dwelleth in light 
inaccessible," it is clear that Moses is not speaking of the 
creation of light, but of the advent of light in this terrestrial 
scene of impenetrable darkness — caused probably by the gradual 
thinning of that envelope of extremely dense vapors which 
covered our earth in its embryonic condition. 

Even in its condition of chaos, the shapeless mass of the 
earth revolved daily on its axis, then just as now; and to this 
is due the fact that ever since light entered, there have been 
co-ordinate and ceaseless alternations of day and night. "And 
God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night." 
The light of those days, nevertheless, would be like the light of 
a densely cloudy day; and neither sun, nor moon, nor stars would 
appear anywhere. To the eye of a supposed spectator it would 
be as though they did not exist. 

The inadequate and inadmissible translation of the last part 
of verse 5, which is repeated as the close of the work of each 
of the six days, "and the evening and the morning were the 
first day" "the second," etc., has given occasion for the un- 
founded idea that the six days of the creation were composed 
each of several hours of darkness followed by others of light; 
but the correct translation, as given in the Revised Version, 
(and in the Modern Spanish Version), "and there was even- 



6 GENESIS 

ing and there was morning, one day," or "the first day," etc., 
teaches us that during those days, however long or short they 
be considered, there was an uninterrupted succession of night 
and day, such as the daily rotation of the earth upon its axis 
would necessarily produce. Moses ordained (Lev. 23: 32), and 
it is the use and custom of the Jews until this day, that their feast 
days should he reckoned from evening to evening; and this is 
perhaps the reason why the evening here precedes the morning. 

[Note 2. — On the Days of Creation. It will be convenient 
for us to stop at this point, in order to consider the question 
of the duration of those Six Days of Creation; and as we have 
disproved the old misleading opinion that the Bible teaches that 
they were composed precisely of two parts, one of darkness 
and the other of light, it will not be difficult to demonstrate 
that, just as the Last Day, the Day of Judgment, will be a 
very long period of time, so the six days of creation were 
periods of vast duration, in each of which God executed slowly 
a certain part of the work of preparing the earth to be the 
habitation of man, and the scene of human redemption. The 
very slowness of this preparatory work will help us duly 
to appreciate the immense and eternal destinies which, ac- 
cording to the Bible, still await this world of ours; the re- 
demption of which brought down the Son of God from heaven, 
in order to rescue "the world," which God had made for him- 
self, from the power and dominion of Satan, and to make it 
the future habitation of the just. John 3: 16, 17; 1 John 4: 14; 
Rom. 8: 19-23; Matt. 25: 34. These long and successive periods 
of preparation teach us also to await with earnest desire, but 
without impatience, the Second Advent of our Lord, and the 
inauguration of the "New Heavens and New Earth wherein 
dwelleth righteousness," for which, says Peter, "we — Christians 
— according to his promise are waiting." 2 Pet. 3: 13. Let us 
note then: 

1st. That it is totally foreign to Hebrew thought and usage 
to say that one day and one night, taken together, constitute 
a day of 24 hours; and in fact the Bible says no such thing, as 
has been shown. 

2nd. The work of creation, which in ch. 1st, is apportioned 
among six days, is said in ch. 2:4 to have been effected in 
one: — "in the day when Jehovah God made earth and heaven." 
It is undeniable, then, that the sacred writer himself makes 
use of the word "day" to signify a time, epoch, or period; as 
if he wished to furnish us the key to his use of the word in the 
previous chapter. 



CHAPTER 1: 2—5 7 

3rd. It is the common use of the Bible to employ the word 
"day" to express a period of undetermined extension. In the 
prophets of the Old Testament it is their almost unvarying use 
of the word. 

4th. "The Last Day," "the Day of the Lord," "the Day of 
Judgment," is undoubtedly a period of immense duration. See 
what Jesus himself says about "the last day" in John 6: 39, 
40, 44, 54; 12: 48; [Matt. 12: 36, 31, 42; Luke 10: 12-14; and 
Paul: 1 Cor. 4: 3-5, and Jude vr. 6.] Besides this, "the last day" 
is also the epoch of the "new creation" — "the regeneration" (see 
Matt. 19: 28; Rev. 21: 5; Acts 3: 21, 22; Rom. 8: 19-23), and of 
the installation of that "new heavens and new earth wherein 
dwelleth righteousness." In correspondence, then, with "the 
last day" it is but natural that the first six days, the days of 
creation, be likewise regarded as long periods. 

5th. The words of the fourth commandment, in which the 
obligation to work six days and rest on the seventh, carry 
as the reason annexed thereto the example of God in his six 
days' work of creation, are not opposed to this view of the 
case; because His days are "as a thousand years" compared 
with ours; as Peter says with special reference to "the day of 
judgment* and perdition of ungodly men." 2 Pet. 3:7, 8. 

6th. In a word, no man can believe, or in fact does believe, 
that "God made the heavens and the earth and all that in 
them is," in six days of 24 hours, and that Gabriel and Satan 
and all the hosts of heaven and hell are no more than six 
natural days — one hundred and forty-four hours — older than 
Adam. 

The most ingenious theory, if not the most probable, with 
regard to the days of creation, as Moses speaks of them, is that 
of the eminent scientist Hugh Miller, who supposed that God 
caused the scene of creation to pass before the mind of Moses, 
under the form of six distinct panoramas, which glided slowly be- 
fore him, the one dissolving into the other; the different days 
being determined by the periods of darkness which interposed 
between them severally; and that Moses described (as later was 
the usage of the prophets in visions of God) what he saw before 
him. So then the writer related only what was visible; and 
what was going on beneath the surface of the waters, in its 
invisible depths, goes without record, until in the fifth day the 

*The great Robert Hall says that "the day thus designated signifies 
a portion of duration set apart for this purpose; for which [according to 
our present ideas] one might suppose an eternity would scarcely he too 
great, when we consider the immensity of the subject, and the multitude 
of the persons concerned." Hall's Works, Vol. IV., Sermon 40. — Tr. 



8 GENESIS 

great sea monsters and other aquatic animals became visible on 
the surface of the waters.] 

1: 6 — 8. THE SECOND DAY. THE EXPANSE. HEAVENS. 

6 And God said, Let there be a firmament* in the midst of the 
waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters. 

7 And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which 
were under the firmament from the waters which were above the 
firmament : and it was so. 

8 And God called the firmament Heaven. And there was evening 
and theje was morning, a second day. 

*Heb. expanse. 

It is much to be regretted that our Bibles, with the excep- 
tion of the Modern Spanish Version, have appropriated from 
the Latin Vulgate the word "firmament" (instead of "expanse," 
given in the note), founded on the ancient and erroneous notions 
of astronomy which were current in Europe until the middle of 
the 17th century. Moses says nothing about "firmament"; and 
the word which he uses, which signifies "expanse," does not even 
suggest the idea of solidity and firmness. Compare its use in 
Ezek. 1: 22; 10: 1, where it represents an aerial platform or 
"float" a species of chariot, borne by the cherubim, and on 
which they carried the God of Israel, seated above it, on his 
throne. 

It is to be observed that the work of the first three days 
of creation was very simple and extremely slow. The result 
of what was done on the first day was light. "Whatever may 
have been the operations which were going on in the depth of 
that dark abyss of waters, under the fecundating influence 
of the "Spirit of God, who brooded upon the surface of the 
waters," the inspired record fixes attention only on what be- 
came visible, when "God said that the light should shine 
out of darkness" (2 Cor. 4:6); and considering the chaotic 
condition of the earth, that was work enough for the first day, 
although it may have occupied many thousands of years. The 
work of the second day was also simple and slow, but grand — 
the expansion of what we call the "terrestrial heavens," which 
we now know do not reach more than fifty or sixty miles 
above our heads. God made the atmosphere to serve as a 
vehicle to bear upwards the aqueous vapors of which the 
clouds are formed, and separate them thus from that form of 
the same substance which we call "water"; dividing in this^ 
way between "the waters which are below the expanse from 
the waters which are above the expanse": which expanse God 
called Heavens. These terrestrial heavens should be carefully 
distinguished from the "heavens" which God created "in the 



CHAPTER 1: 9—13 9 

beginning," and from the heavens of the stars and other astral 
bodies which became visible on the fourth day. To an ob- 
server, standing on the surface of the earth, the atmospheric 
or terrestrial heavens appear to be identical with the heaven 
of the stars; but Moses, without being an astronomer, dis- 
tinguishes carefully between the two, when he says the heavens 
of vr. 8 are that apparent expanse above the seas, where float 
the clouds that discharge their waters upon the earth. To 
say that Moses believed that there were oceans of waters up 
yonder in the regions of ether, which at the Deluge fell to in- 
undate the earth, is an indication of much ignorance, of much 
thoughtlessness, or of much malice. 

Such then, was the work of the second day; and with it 
the earth made another stride forward; and it was a great 
stride. 

What was then seen, at the end of the second day, was 
waters and waters: the waters which floated in the air in the 
form of clouds and dense mists, which allowed the light to 
pass, but excluded the sight of the sun which emitted it; 
and here below condensed and black waters, an ocean with- 
out limits and without a shore, which enwrapped the earth 
completely around. Beneath this universal ocean, as we know 
by the discoveries of modern science, primitive forms of life, 
of low organization, were being created, both vegetable and 
animal; beginning in the form of elementary seaweed and 
of simple, minute shells; but as they were not visible, noth- 
ing is said of them. The fossil remains of these shells are 
found in the rocks that form the foundations of continents, 
or which by volcanic upheavals have been elevated in the 
form of hills, mountains and Cordilleras. Many enormous masses 
of such rock are composed in their totality of these marine 
shells. 

1: 9 — 13. THE THIRD DAY. SEAS. EARTH. VEGETATION. 

9 And God said, let the waters under the heavens be gathered 
together unto one place, and let the dry land appear : and it was 
so. 

10 And God called the dry land Earth ; and the gathering to- 
gether of the waters called he Seas : and God saw that it was good. 

11 And God said, Let the Earth put forth grass, herbs yield- 
ing seed, and fruit-trees bearing fruit after their kind, wherein is the 
seed thereof, upon the earth : and it was so. 

12 And the earth brought forth grass, herbs yielding seed after 
their kind, and trees bearing fruit, wherein is the seed thereof, after 
their kind ; and God saw that it was good. 

13 And there was evening and there was morning, a third day. 

A globe of water below, and above an opaque heaven, likewise 



10 GENESIS 

charged with water, — such we may suppose was the aspect 
which the earth presented at the beginning of the third day. 
Moses was no scientist, but the scientific man of today, who 
deserves the name, cannot less than admire the accuracy with 
which the Bible presents step by step, the same order of crea- 
tion which human science has been able to gather up from 
"the testimony of the rocks," at the close of the 19th cen- 
tury of the Christian Era. Moses was neither a philosopher 
nor a scientist, nor was there a human observer when these 
things happened, to give an account of them; how then, ex- 
cept by divine revelation, was he to know of them, and to 
speak of them with such sublime simplicity, brevity and pre- 
cision, not as theories, but as facts which admitted of neither 
doubt nor dispute, 1500 years before Christ, and which human 
science had scarcely begun to trace 1800 years after Christ? 
Let the reader compare with the first chapter of Genesis the 
ideas of the sages of antiquity, including the most illustrious 
of the Greeks, Aristotle and Plato, relative to the earth which 
they inhabited, and confess that here we see the hand of God. 
And let the honest sceptic consider whether this is a beginning 
worthy of that divine revelation which God has made of his will 
for our salvation. 

The work of the third day was undoubtedly effected by 
what we call volcanic upheavals. As the huge bulk of the 
earth, at one time an incandescent mass, gradually cooled down, 
by the continual radiation of its heat into the interplanetary 
spaces, a thin but constantly thickening crust of solid mat- 
ter would gradually form on its surface, and this in turn be- 
come gradually covered with a universal ocean of waters, con- 
densed from the aqueous vapors, in which form they first ex- 
isted. At the same time, our globe, contracting more and more 
in size, under the double action of the reduction of its heat 
and the law of gravitation, that thin but gradually thicken- 
ing crust of solid matter beneath this universal ocean would 
necessarily break into -folds, not in confused masses, but neces- 
sarily, as such breaks always do, in some general order; and 
in their successive upheavals from beneath the waters, under 
the directing hand and providence of God, would form the 
systems of hills, and mountains and great Cordilleras of the 
world; while the corresponding depressions of other parts of 
the earthy crust would form the vast abysses of the ocean; 
which in the time of its universal dominion was not so deep 
as at present. To this, as we understand it, refer the follow- 
ing words: "And God said, Let the waters which are under 



CHAPTER 1: 9—13 11 

the heavens be gathered together unto one place, and let the 
dry land appear. . . . And God called the dry land Earth, 
and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas." Vrs. 
9-10. No scientist of today can tell it with so much grandeur, 
or with greater precision! Such was the work of the f6rmer 
part of the third day; and in this case, as in the former ones, 
it was of slow operation, and prolonged through many ages 
— a slow operation which still continues to change in some 
degree the topography and configuration of lands and seas. 

As the mountain chains and continents were thus being 
slowly elevated, or sometimes rapidly, out of the depths of this 
universal ocean, God continued to stock them with grass, plants, 
and trees, each "according to its kind," and which "yielded seed, 
each according to its kind." It is probable that in those illimit- 
able ages of the past, God created the different families of the 
vegetable world, and later, those of the animal world, not in 
great forests and in immense herds, but as at last he did the 
human family, one by one, as individuals, or pairs, leaving them 
to propagate, and thus to fill the earth. In all the miracles of 
the Bible we observe this economy of divine power; and it is in 
keeping with God's other works and in agreement with the con- 
clusions of human science, that every family of plants and ani- 
mals, which are identical in their characteristic features, had 
also the same origin. And the law of identical reproduction, 
which Moses lays down with regard to plants here, and in vrs. 
24, 25 repeats with regard to the animal creation, appears 
categorically to exclude the theory of Evolution, which would 
subvert the doctrine of an original creation of plants and animals 
by the wisdom and power of God, and establish in its stead the 
atheistic or pantheistic view that the world, as it exists today, 
has developed itself, by means of an evolution of the lower forms 
of vegetable and animal life into others more complex and perfect. 
This the sacred text seems to contradict completely; and all 
human experience and observation condemn it no less, showing 
that each family or race reproduces itself "after its kind." All 
the world recognizes and practices evolution within the limits 
of each particular family (or genus), and an intelligent selection, 
in accordance with the laws of reproduction, is the way in which 
florists, horticulturalists and cattle breeders improve the different 
species; but all human observation goes to prove that the re- 
production of every family "according to its kind" is the utmost 
that nature is capable of; and the natural variations from this 
rule are always from good to had, and never from lad to good. 



12 GENESIS 

The deterioration, the degradation of species, is the law of our 
world, and not the opposite. 

[Note 3. — On Moses and the Scientists. Moses did not propose 
to write a natural history of the creation, but a narrative which 
should serve as a preface to the history of human redemption; 
and he shows us how God made the world, "the footstool for his 
feet," as a habitation for that human race which he made for 
himself, and which after it became lost by its horrible apostasy, 
he has proposed to redeem anew for himself. It is therefore only 
losing time to occupy ourselves with the endeavor to harmonize 
the brief and sublime words of the Bible in reference to the work 
of creation in its six days, with some one or other of the differ- 
ent systems, confessedly imperfect and incomplete, and often con- 
tradictory, which the geologists are elaborating, with more or less 
skill, from the study of the earth itself. It is a vain endeavor to 
try to extract from the writings of Moses what he himself never 
thought of putting into them. It is enough to know that the 
conformity of the first chapter of Genesis with the real and certain 
discoveries of science is notable in the highest degree, and does 
not admit of any reasonable explanation whatever, aside from 
that which the Scripture itself affirms, viz., that Moses and the 
other prophets of the ancient time did not write according to the 
promptings of their own will, but "holy men of God spake as they 
were moved by the Holy Ghost." 2 Peter 1: 21.] 

The first form of life of which this record treats is vegetable 
life; and this on the third day, after God had formed the dry 
land. Science also discovers to us the fact that upon the mineral 
kingdom is founded the vegetable, and upon the vegetable king- 
dom, the animal, and between each of these kingdoms is inter- 
posed an impassable abyss. The inorganic matter of the mineral 
kingdom is totally incapable of life; but transmuted by means of 
vegetable life into a different kind of matter, which we call 
"vegetable," it answers not only its own legitimate and proper 
uses, but serves also as a basis for the existence and nutrition of 
individuals of the animal kingdom. Dead inorganic matter is 
vitalized, when transmuted into the vegetable, and is elevated to 
still higher forms of life, when the vegetable is transmuted into 
the animal; so that in the natural order, the mineral kingdom 
necessarily precedes the vegetable, and this the animal; and such 
is precisely the order which Moses describes. It has already 
been said that, underneath the waters, forms of vegetable and 
animal life existed long ages before there was dry land for 
terrestrial plants and animals; but even in this case, vegetable life 
necessarily preceded the animal. 



CHAPTER 1: 14—19 13 

1: 14 — 19. THE FOURTH DAY. CELESTIAL LUMINARIES. 

14 And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of heaven 
to divide the day from the night ; and let them be for signs, and for 
seasons, and for days and years : 

15 and let them be for lights in the firmament of heaven to give 
light upon the earth : and it was so. 

16 And God made the two great lights ; the greater light to rule 
the day, and the lesser light to rule the night : he made the stars 
also. 

17 And God set them in the firmament of heaven to give light upon 
the earth, 

18 and to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the 
light from the darkness : and God saw that it was good. 

19 And there was evening and there was morning, a fourth 
day. 

It is a thing well known to-day, even by school children, that 
the earth revolves around the s:;n, and that it is the force or 
attraction of gravitation that holds the earth and the other 
planets of our solar system in its powerful grasp, while, with 
prodigious rapidity, they perform their annual revolutions around 
the sun. This paragraph, therefore, serves as a stumbling-block 
to many humble Christians, and as a laughing-stock for the 
enemies of the Bible; as if it showed that Moses, for the lack of 
scientific knowledge, had fallen into the egregious blunder of say- 
ing that God made the sun, the moon and the stars three days 
after the light existed and the regular alternations of night and 
day. But that is a very safe rule which Paul lays down for our 
guidance in 1 Cor. 1: 25: that "the foolishness of God is wiser 
than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men." The 
sacred writer had already said that the "heavens" were created 
"in the beginning," and as the terrestrial heavens were the work 
of the second day, what "heavens" were those which existed from 
the "beginning" except those which we call "sidereal" — the place 
of the sun and of the other celestial orbs? In this relation 
Moses describes things, not as they are in themselves, but accord- 
ing to the appearance they would present to the eye of an ob- 
server, or as they would be seen in a panorama of creation pre- 
sented to his eye in a vision. And if the light of vr. 3 was, as 
we suppose it to have been, the dawning and increasing light of 
the sun as it penetrated more and more the envelope of dense 
vapors which completely covered the earth, in proportion as it 
became gradually thinner, from the first day until the fourth, the 
veil of clouds and vapors would at last be completely dissipated 
(precisely as happens now, after several days of clouds and rain) ; 
and the clear light of the sun would present itself to the sight by 
day, and the moon with its accompaniment of stars by night, 
as if it were a new creation; and the phenomenon so surprising 



14 GENESIS 

could not be more exactly described than in the sublimely simple 
words which Moses uses. 

Such was the work of the fourth day — the causing that the sun 
and moon and stars should present themselves to the sight, and 
the appointing them to be luminaries for the earth; and as this 
resulted naturally from the gradual purification of the atmos- 
pheric heavens (a process which was in constant operation ever 
since the first day), it is not probable that the fourth day could 
compare in point of duration with any other of the six. Its dis- 
tinctive mark was the apparition of the sun and moon and stars, 
which existed long before. But during the fourth day, however 
long or short it may have been, the processes already inaugurated 
in the waters and on the earth, in the vegetable and animal 
kingdoms, would continue in their natural and invariable course, 
and the earth would go on slowly preparing itself to be the habi- 
tation of him who was to be the end and consummation of the 
work of creation — Man: whom God was to constitute owner and 
lord of all created things. 

1: 20 23. THE FIFTH DAY. AQUATIC ANIMALS. BIRDS. 

20 And God said, Let the waters swarm with swarms of living 
creatures,* and let birds fly above the earth in the open firma- 
ment of heaven. 

21 And God created the great sea-monsters, and every living 
creaturef that moveth, wherewith the waters swarmed, after their 
kind, and every winged bird after its kind : and God saw that it 
was good. 

22 And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply, and 
fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth. 

23 And there was evening and there was morning, a fifth day. 

[*Heb. living souls.] [ffle&. living soul.] 

Modern science reveals to us with indubitable certainty the 
fact that in remote epochs, represented conveniently by the 
third, fourth and fifth days, and the former part of the sixth, 
the earth was not habitable for man; and that in epochs still 
more remote, the air and the seas were so charged with car- 
bonic acid, lime and other hurtful substances, that the earth 
was not habitable for any of the animals of superior organiza- 
tion, nor the water for articulate fish, nor the air for birds; 
and that the lime was eliminated from the waters principally 
by the gradual deposition of the enormous limestone rocks, 
several miles in thickness, which now exist, and the carbonic 
acid was eliminated from the air principally by the formation 
of the immense forests of those times which went to form 
vegetable soil for our fields, and the inexhaustible mines of 
mineral coal for our workshops. Modern science also demon- 



CHAPTER 1: 20—23 15 

strates that the first forms of vegetable and animal life were 
of very low organization, and that as the conditions gradually 
became more propitious, fishes, birds and animals of superior 
organization went on presenting themselves in the world; not, 
however, by the slow transformation of inferior into superior 
orders of being, but complete and entire, each "after its kind," 
and to reproduce "after its kind," by the powerful hand of the 
Creator. 

Thus it happened that on the fifth day, the conditions of the 
water and of the air being now favorable, the waters began to 
swarm with new animals of higher organization, and many of 
them of extraordinary bulk; "great sea-monsters," and fishes of 
higher order; and the air began to be peopled with winged fowl, 
of every kind: "And God said, Let the waters bring forth 
abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and let fowl fly 
above the earth in the open firmament (Heb. expanse) of heaven. 
And God created the great sea monsters," etc. Vrs. 20, 21. 

The fossil remains of those times in fact show that there were 
then "great sea-monsters," of forms now unknown, which were 
the lords of the seas, and terrible beyond all exaggeration; pre- 
cisely as Moses says with regard to the fifth day: for although 
we now have some great fishes, as whales and sharks, nobody 
would speak of "great sea-monsters" as a distinctive trait of our 
modern seas. The "swarms of living souls," we indeed have; 
although it may be in less abundance than at that time. The 
original of vr. 20 is "Let the waters swarm forth swarms of living 
souls"; and it has reference to the innumerable and incredibly 
prolific hosts of animated beings which inhabit the seas and the 
rivers. Nothing of all that is known on the earth, or in the air, 
is comparable in point of fecundity with the fishes: the female of 
the salmon in a single season spawning near a half a million of 
eggs. Such is the fecundity of fishes, that if it were not for the 
destruction that is made first of the eggs, and then of the little 
fish after they are hatched, in a short time they would literally 
fill the seas and the rivers. 

[Note 4. — On "Living Souls." All the infinitude of fishes 
and other aquatic animals are called "living souls" in the original 
text of vrs. 20, 21. In vr. 24 of this chapter, the beasts, and cattle, 
and reptiles ("creeping things") which inhabit the dry land, are 
likewise called "living souls." In vr. 30, of "every beast of the 
earth and every bird of the heavens" it is said that they "have in 
them a living soul." And in ch. 2:7 it is affirmed that when 
Jehovah God breathed the breath of life into the nostrils of the 
man he had formed of clay, "the man (also) became a living 



16 GENESIS 

soul." The inspired text makes use of the identical phrase with 
regard to all of them. To change, therefore, arbitrarily the 
words into "living creature" (or animal) in the case of birds, 
reptiles, fishes, "cattle," and wild beasts and reserve "living souls" 
as a distinctive trait of man alone in the animal creation, is in 
my opinion totally unwarranted, and gives room for very false 
inferences: as for example the very common error of believing 
that "living soul" is the same as "immortal soul." Of this er- 
roneous translation those who call themselves "Christian Evolu- 
tionists" seize hold in order to affirm that man descended from a 
long line of animal forefathers, and that he himself would have 
continued to be a mere animal, if (as they say, "according to the 
Bible") God had not superadded to him a "living soul," the which 
differentiated him at once from the animal creation. But this 
is not according to the Bible, but rather according to an inad- 
equate and incorrect rendering of what the Bible says. That 
which Moses affirms in the clearest and most emphatic language, 
is that God communicated life — "a living soul" — to all the differ- 
ent orders of the animal creation; and when he breathed the 
breath of life into the nostrils of the clay which he had formed 
to be man, the dead matter came also to be what birds, reptiles, 
fishes, cattle, and beasts had been before him, to wit, "a living 
soul," and participated in the same animal life as they. As 
Calvin says in this place, there is nothing in the Hebrew text, 
outside of the circumstantial relation of the distinguishing man- 
ner in which God communicated to him the breath of life, which 
suggests the idea that together with the animal soul, which wo 
have in common with irrational creatures, God also communicated 
to him a rational and immortal soul. 

The correct apprehension of this phrase is indispensable to 
the proper understanding of the use which Paul makes of it 
in regard to the resurrection of the body in 1 Cor. 15: 45 (A. V.) : 
"And so it is written, The first man, Adam, was made a living 
soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit"; which leaves 
the ordinary reader completely bewildered, who understands "a 
living soul" to be an immortal soul. What the apostle really gives 
us to understand is, that with the breath of God Adam came 
into possession of an animal life; but Christ, raised from the 
dead, came to be "a life-giving spirit" (without ceasing to have a 
material body), and the Author of spiritual life, in soul and 
body, to all his lineage. Life is in itself the greatest of all mys- 
teries; and wise men confess their complete ignorance as to what 
it is, and in what it consists; and it is much better where we 
know nothing, to leave the Holy Spirit, who spake by Moses, to 



CHAPTER 1: 24—31 17 

speak of it as he pleases, and not as we would have him speak. 
It is also to be noted that the Spanish Dictionary attributes 
"soul" to plants as well as to men and other animals: to all of 
them the "soul" is the principle of animal and vegetable life. In 
this, the Modern Spanish Version follows faithfully the Hebrew 
text. The R. V. more correctly translates the passage: "So also 
it is written: The first man, Adam, became a living soul. The 
last Adam became a life-giving spirit." 1 Cor. 15: 45.] 

1: 24 — 31. THE SIXTH DAY. TERRESTRIAL ANIMALS. MAN. 

(4004 b. c. According to the LXX, 5503 b. c; Hales 5411.) 

24 And God said, Let the earth bring forth living creatures* 
after their kind, cattle, and creeping things, and beasts of the earth 
after their kind : and it was so. 

25 And God made the beasts of the earth after their kind, and 
the cattle after their kind, and everything that creepeth upon the 
ground after its kind ; and God saw that it was good. 

26 And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our like- 
ness : and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over 
the birds of the heavens, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, 
and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. 

27 And God created man in his own image, in the image of God 
created he him ; male and female created he them. 

28 And God blessed them : and God said unto them, Be fruitful, 
and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it ; and have 
dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the heavens, 
and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth. 

29 And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb yielding 
seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in which 
is the fruit of a tree yielding seed ; to you it shall be for food : 

30 and to every beast of the earth, and to every bird of the 
heavens, and to everything that creepeth upon the earth, wherein 
there is life,f / have given every green herb for food : and it was so. 

31 And God saw everything that he had made, and, behold, it was 
very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth 
day. 

l*Heb. living souls.] tffefc. a living soul. 

The sixth day, like the third, falls naturally into two parts or 
divisions. In the former part of this day God made terrestrial 
animals; but it is not to be supposed that, having on the third day 
created grass, plants and trees, he should allow the fourth and the 
fifth days to pass without creating any terrestrial animals to make 
use of their proper aliment, so provided. Nor is it to be believed that 
the plants, fishes, birds and land animals were created precisely 
and only on the day indicated for each class. Before the third 
day, plants and animals existed in the illimitable ocean, which 
then covered the entire globe: and it is known by the "testimony 
of the rocks," which is as certain in its own department as is the 
testimony of the Book, that God did not create the finer plants 
and grains for the use of man, together with the most precious 



18 GENESIS 

flowers and fruit, which serve for the use of man, rather than for 
the beasts, until the sixth day, and about the same time that he 
created the human race. The simpler plants and animals, and 
those of powerful rather than delicate organization, were first 
created, and in remote epochs; while those of superior quality 
and organization were gradually introduced according as the 
physical conditions of the world continued to improve. The 
Mosaic relation in no respect contradicts this: for it only indi- 
cates, first, the visible changes effected in the order of creation; 
and second, the great characteristics which were distinctive of 
the different days or epochs. 

Animals, therefore, of lower order, and principally those 
which we call "cold-blooded," capable of existing under the most 
unfavorable conditions, as, for example, reptiles like toads, frogs 
and other amphibious animals, inhabited the dry land from the 
time it was raised out of the waters, and provided with grass and 
plants and trees; and others also were introduced in the fourth 
and fifth days, without being really characteristic of them. But the 
sixth day was that which had for its distinctive peculiarity 
the animal creation — "beasts and reptiles, and wild beasts of the 
earth, according to their kind." Here also modern science, in its 
most certain discoveries, reveals the fact that the stronger ani- 
mals, and often of gigantic size, were first created and afterwards 
those of finer organization and superior race: the which (like 
our domestic animals, sheep, goats and neat cattle) began to 
exist but a short while before man; the necessary conditions for 
their existence being more or less the same. 

The word "reptiles" (creeping things), vrs. 24, 25 (which in 
the Modern Spanish Version is used for lack of a better), will 
not adjust itself to our classification of this name, embracing 
cold-blooded animals; which existed many of them in the pre- 
ceding epochs. The Hebrew language knows little of scientific 
classification. These terrestrial "reptiles" are called in the He- 
brew text "crawlers" or "creepers" and besides those that prop- 
erly crawl or creep, include those which walk on four or more 
short legs, and go squat, close to the earth. In Lev. 11: 29, 30, 
under this denomination ("creepers" or "crawlers") are men- 
tioned "the weasel, the mouse, the tortoise, the porcupine, the 
crocodile, the lizard, the locust and the chameleon." 

When the air and the waters had become thus purified, and 
the land fertilized and beautified, and provided with all its ani- 
mals, and all the products of the vegetable kingdom, and a 
garden of delights had been prepared for the alimentation and 
recreation of Man, in the second part of the sixth day God made 



CHAPTER 1: 24—31 19 

him also, and constituted him lord and owner of all created 
things, and placed him in the paradise which he had already 
prepared for him. Ch. 2: 8 — 15. 

The language in which Moses represents to us the creation of 
man is very striking: "And God said: Let us make man in our 
image, after our likeness; and let them have dominion over the 
fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, 
and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that 
creepeth upon the earth." Vr. 26. Most notable is this consulta- 
tion. Says the prophet Isaiah: "With whom took he counsel?" 
(Isa. 40:14); hut here we have the consultation of the Most 
High God with himself; and this in regard to the creation of that 
Man who has so ill fulfilled the high designs of his Creator. 
Take special note of the words "Let us make" "our image," "our 
likeness." With the exception of ch. 3: 22, where there seems to 
have been another consultation upon the fall of man, and ch. 11: 
7, where it is repeated with regard to the proud pretensions of 
men, on building the city and tower of Babylon, I believe that this 
form does not again occur in all Holy Scripture. With whom then 
did he consult? It is unnecessary to say that it was not a con- 
sultation with angels. A plurality of dignity (according to the 
magniloquent style of Bishops and Popes, who say: "We, So 
and So, ordain," etc.) is completely outside the use of the word 
of God, which never affects grandeur of any kind. But there 
was One who afterwards "became flesh," being born of the Virgin 
Mary, who is expressly called, "Wonderful, Counsellor, Mighty 
God, Father of the Eternal Age (Mod. Span. Ver.) — Latin Vul- 
gate, 'Father of the Future Age,' or World to Come — Prince of 
Peace" (Isa. 9: 6), of whom we know full well that "he was in 
the beginning with God" (John 1:2): and with express reference 
to this same work of creation, he says, under the pseudonym of 
Wisdom : 

"Then was I by him, as a master workman [or 

architect of all] ; 
and I was daily his delight, 
rejoicing always before him: 
rejoicing in his habitable earth: 
and my delight was with the sons of men." 

Prov. 8: 30, 31. 

Two persons, then, took part in this consultation, the Father 
and Son, which interested them personally most deeply; and we 
do not hesitate to affirm, having the open Bible before us, that 
that Divine Spirit who brooded over the face of the waters, and 



20 GENESIS 

was and is the immediate Author of life in all its forms, was the 
third person in said consultation. 

"Image and likeness of God" cannot be understood of cor- 
poreal form, speaking of him who is pure spirit. In Col. 3: 10 
and Eph. 4: 23, 24, Paul explains the meaning of the words per- 
fectly, where speaking of our renovation into the lost image of 
God, he says: "And have put on the new man, who is being re- 
newed in knowledge, after the image of him that created him"; 
and again: "And that ye be renewed in the spirit of your mind, 
and put on the new man, who after [the image of] God, hath 
oeen created in righteousness and true holiness." The image and 
likeness of God, then, consisted in the possession of a spiritual 
nature (besides his corporeal and animal part) ; and this con- 
sisted in intellectual and moral faculties, and also in a holy, 
spiritual and immortal life. 

This human being, in part animal, in part spiritual (perhaps 
the first experiment which God had made of uniting in one 
subject brute matter and immortal soul), the representative 
and image of God who created him, was to have the dominion 
over all created things, animal, vegetable and mineral; and he 
received commandment "to be fruitful and multiply and re- 
plenish the earth and subdue it." It is therefore but an absurd 
and ridiculous notion, invented by celibate priests and friars, and 
universally disseminated in Spanish-speaking lands, that the 
woman was herself the forbidden fruit, and that the use of mar- 
riage it was by which man fell, bringing ruin upon himself and 
his posterity. Prom the beginning it was, and still is the will of 
God that "every man have his own wife, and every woman her 
own husband." 1 Cor. 7: 2. Those who hold to the monastic 
and semi-manichean idea that the marriage state is in itself im- 
pure, or that in any case it is less holy than the celibate condi- 
tion, will do well to observe that the first commandment which 
God imposed upon the man and the woman in their state of 
original holiness (being then as holy as the angels), was: "Be 
fruitful and multiply, and replenish the earth" (vr. 28); and if 
they had refused to do this, taking upon themselves, on the con- 
trary, the monastic vows of the so-called "angelical life," they 
would have sinned and fallen, just as certainly as by eating the 
forbidden fruit. 

CH. 2: 1 — 3. THE SEVENTH DAY. THE REST, AND ITS COMMEMORATION. 

(4004 b. c. According to the LXX, 5503 b. c; Hales, 5411.) 

1 And the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host 
of them. 



CHAPTER 2: 1—3 21 

2 And on the seventh day God finished his work which he had 
made ; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which 
he had made. 

3 And God blessed the seventh day, and hallowed it ; because 
that in it he rested from all his work which God had created and 
made. 

"The heavens and the earth, and all the host of them'" (or, as 
the same thing is expressed in Ex. 20: 11, "all that in them is"), 
having been thus finished, God "rested"; which means that he 
ceased from his creative activity;* — a positive declaration, which 
bounds, and distinguishes between, the works of Creation and 
Providence. So that the words of our Saviour in John 5:17: 
"My father worketh hitherto and I work," do not allow of the 
use which some "Christian evolutionists" desire to make of them, 
in order to accredit their contention that "the work of creation" 
is still going on. The certainty is that according to the theory, 
or theories, of Evolution, whether "Christian" or unchristian, 
there never has been any work of creation, but a work of pro- 
creation from the beginning of life in the world, — which is a 
work of providence, if there be one; so that "creation" and 
"providence" are confounded, according to this system. The 
Bible, on the contrary, emphatically declares that the work of 
creation had already ceased with the sixth day, and God entered 
on the period of rest (= suspension or cessation of his creative 
activities) on the seventh day. Moses says that God commem* 
orated this rest of his with the institution-, for the benefit of man, 
of the weekly sabbath, or rest-day. This sabbath, or rest, fell on 
the seventh day; but that was not the name of the seventh day. 
In the Bible the days of the week are called by their numbers, 
first, second, etc., and not by any distinguishing name; and it is 
to be lamented that in Spanish the seventh day should be called 
"Sabado" (—Sabbath), which is not a day of rest. In the Old 
Testament any day of the week was a "sabbath" which was of 
strict religious observance, as the Day of Expiation, which fell on 
the tenth day of the seventh month. Lev. 16: 29, 31. At the pass- 
over and the feast of unleavened bread, three "sabbaths" usually 
occurred in the eight days of the combined feasts. Passover fell 
on the 14th of the month Abib; and the 15th, whatever the day of 
the week, was a "sabbath" — rest-day, by positive statute (Lev. 23: 
5 — 8), and is called "sabbath" in vr. 11 (the 22nd, seven days later, 
being a rest-day also) ; and when the weekly sabbath coincided 
with this, the Jews called it a "double sabbath." The same 
thing happened in the feast of tabernacles (or booths), which 

•The same Hebrew verb, "shabath;' is translated "cease" in Isa. 14 : 4 ; 
24 : 8, twice ; 33 : 8 ; Lam. 5 : 14, 15, and other times not a few. 



22 GENESIS 

began on the 15th day of the month and lasted eight days, of 
which the first and the last, whatever the day of the week, were 
days of strict observance: "No servile work shall ye do therein." 
Lev. 23: 34 — 36. It is to he observed that not only was the tenth 
day of the seventh month ("the day of expiation") a rest-day, 
whatever the day of the week, but it is called "a sabbath of solemn 
rest," in Lev. 16: 31, and also in Lev. 23: 32; Heb."a, sabbath of 
a great sabbath." 

Since then, this is the usage of the Old Testament, it was 
natural and proper that in the New Testament the rest of Christ 
from his atoning work of human redemption should be called 
the "Lord's day," and should be observed as the Christian Sab- 
bath, or rest-day. Rev. 1: 10; Acts 20: 6, 7; 1 Cor. 16: 2. 

It is also noteworthy that in this narrative of the six days 
of the creation (commencing with ch. 1: 1, and extending to 
ch. 2:3), each paragraph closes with the repeated declaration 
"that there was evening and there was morning the first day," 
"the second," "the third," and so on to the "sixth." But the 
seventh day, the day of the Divine rest, has no such conclusion; 
which many think is intended to teach us that his rest still con- 
tinues; and this rest of the Creator will last until the epoch of the 
"New Creation," whose glories and other wonders will utterly 
eclipse all the glories of the first. Matt. 19: 28; Rom. 8: 18—25; 
Eph. 2: 7; 1 Pet. 1: 5, 7, 13; 2 Pet. 3: 13; Rev. 21: 1—5. [In De- 
litzsch's translation of the Greek Testament into Hebrew (which 
gives us the nearest representation we can have of the words our 
Saviour actually used), Matt. 19: 28 is rendered: "in the new 
creation, when the Son of man shall sit on the throne of his 
glory;" being seated, till then, on his Father's throne, as he says 
in Rev. 3: 21.— Tr.] 

Hardly had the work of creation been finished, when, by the 
artifice and malice of Satan man fell into apostasy and ruin*, 
giving occasion to the divine work of redemption, which still con- 

♦There is a profound and impenetrable mystery involved in the ruin and 
redemption of this world, which only the revelations of the Day of Judg- 
ment (when Satan and his angels, as well as all mankind, are to be 
judged) will suffice to explain. The reader may perhaps find a clew to it 
in Luke 3:3. It is as easy as it is common to say that this claim of 
Satan was "an impudent falsehood" ; but had there been no foundation 
in fact for it, asserted as it was before Christ himself in his temptation, 
it does not seem possible that Jesus would or could have allowed it to 
pass unchallenged. Yet he was so far from stamping it as a falsehood, 
that three times over he himself calls Satan "the prince of this world" 
(Gr. kosmos, John 12 : 31 ; 14 : 30 ; 16 : 11) ; Paul once calls him "the god 
of this world" {Or. age, — or present disordered state of the kosmos ; 2 
Cor. 4:3); and he says furthermore that "our Lord Jesus Christ gdce htm- 



CHAPTER 2: 1—3 23 

tinues, and fills the pages of the Bible from the 3rd chapter of 
Genesis to the 20th of Revelation. This work of redemption cor- 
responds temporally with God's rest from his work of creation; 
and the two will end together in the work a thousand times 
greater, of "the New Creation," which angels yonder in heaven, 
together with the material creation, cursed for man's sake, the 
saints in glory, and Christians who know "the hope of their 
calling," and Jesus Christ himself together with them (Heb. 
10: 13), wait for with longing desire. 1 Pet. 1: 12, 13; 2 Pet. 
3: 13; Rom. 8: 19 — 23. Paul, in heaven, no longer "groans," but is 
still "waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of his 
body:* Compare Luke 20: 35, 36. 

[Note 5. — On the observance of the seventh day of the week. 
Before there was sin and death in the world, God ordained the 
observance of the seventh day as a weekly rest, or sabbath. 
"He blessed the seventh day and sanctified (or hallowed) it." 
The statement in Gen. 2: 3 does not mean anything different 
from what is required in the fourth commandment of the Deca- 
logue in Ex. 20: 8, which says "Remember the sabbath day ( = rest- 
day) to keep it holy" (=;"sanctify" it) — a change of translation 
merely. There can be no reasonable doubt, then, that God or- 
dained that it should be observed and kept both before and after 
the fall, and that it is his law for all the nations of the world. 

The observance of the seventh day was ordained in commemora- 
tion of the work of creation. But scarcely had God concluded the 
work, and hardly had he ordained its commemoration, when, by 
the artifice of Satan, the world fell into apostasy and ruin; and 
from then till now little enough is the glory which God has got 
from that his work of the first creation. Without the purpose 
and the work of "the New Creation," commenced in the person of 
Christ himself, when he arose from among the dead to immor- 
tality and life, after that he had made the atonement for our 
sins in his own blood, and which he will finish "in the regenera- 
tion (=the new creation), when the Son of Man shall sit upon 
the throne of his glory" (Matt. 19: 28), the first creation would 
have served only for the eternal reproach and dishonor of the 
Creator, and little worthy would it have been of any commem- 
oration at all. It is clear, therefore, that this is a thousand 
times more worthy than that of its commemoration, which the 
self for us, that he might deliver us from this present evil world (Gr. age), 
according to the will of our God and Father. Gal. 1 : 4. When that mys- 
tery is solved, we shall doubtless clearly see that the end to he accom- 
plished was not disproportionate to the infinite price paid for the world's 
redemption from the thraldom of Satan. Had almighty power sufficed 
to effect this, no "blood divine" would ever have been shed for it. — Tr. 



24 GENESIS 

apostles instituted in the name of Christ himself (Rev. 1: 10), 
and which, with very rare exceptions, the whole Christian world 
has observed, observes and until the end of the Age will continue 
to observe in weekly commemoration of the resurrection of him 
whom God has made the eternal life of men. John 20: 19, 26, 
taken together with Rev. 1: 10; 1 Cor. 16: 2 and Acts 20: 6, 7, 
manifests that from the beginning the apostles observed the first 
day of the week as "the Lord's Day"=the Day of the Lord Jesus. 
The last citation (Acts 20: 6, 7) is particularly strong; for it 
puts in boldest relief the circumstance that Paul and his com- 
panions "remained seven days" in Troas; but without making 
any special account of the Jewish Sabbath, they chose "the first 
day of the week" for the celebration of the Holy Supper and the 
most solemn preaching of the word.] 



CHAPTER II. 

VES. 4 6. ANOTHER COMPENDIOUS ACCOUNT OF THE WOEK OF CEEATION. 

4 These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth 
when they were created, in the day that Jehovah God made earth 
and heaven. 

5 And no plant of the field was yet in the earth, and no herb 
of the field had yet sprung up ; for Jehovah God had not caused it 
to rain upon the earth : and there was not a man to till the ground ; 

6 but there went up a mist from the earth, and watered the whole 
face of the ground. 

Some interpreters understand the phrase with which this 
paragraph begins, as referring to the preceding section (ch. 1, 
2: 3); and so Amat translates it, "Such was the origin of the 
heaven and the earth." But the identical phrase occurs eleven 
times in the book of Genesis, and three times more in the rest 
of the Bible; and each time as the beginning of a new para- 
graph, with reference to what follows, and not to what pre- 
cedes. Ch. 2:4; 5:1; 6:9; 10:1; 11:10, 27; 25:12, 19; 36:1, 
9; 37: 2; Num. 3: 1; Ruth 4: 18; 1 Chron. 1: 29. It is there- 
fore probable and even certain, that in this case, as in the 
other thirteen, the phrase "these are the generations" does not 
refer to the preceding relation (however much it may look like 
it here), but to what follows, and that it introduces a new subject 
— another compendious account of the work of creation; as if it 
were said: "These, which follow, are the memoir? [Heb. genera- 
tions) of the heavens and the earth, when they were created." 
The word "generations" in vr. 4 has no such sense in Spanish or 
English as will agree with "heavens and earth"; but its ordinary 



CHAPTER 2: 4—6 25 

use in the passages cited, and notably in ch. 37: 2 (in which noth- 
ing whatever is said about genealogies), is equivalent to 
"memoirs," or family history; it being usual in the ancient times 
to associate the family history with its genealogical descent. 

I take for granted, then, that vrs. 4 — 6 are not the continua- 
tion, or a compend, of the preceding relation, but begin a new 
division of the book of Genesis, which extends to the end of the 
third chapter, and includes the creation in general, the creation 
of man, paradise, the creation of woman, the temptation and fall 
of man, the curse on account of his sin, together with the first 
promise, and the expulsion of our first parents from paradise. 

The use of the word "day" in this fragment is interesting, 
since it embraces the entire extension of what in the previous 
relation is distributed among six days; and by such use of 
the word, the writer himself authorizes us to understand it in 
ch. 1: 1 — 2: 3 with the same breadth of meaning, as signifying 
not days of twenty-four hours, but epochs, or periods of in- 
definite duration, yet characterized by particular facts or cir- 
cumstances. 

The condition of things which is presented to us in vr. 5 
is certainly hard to comprehend, — an epoch in which no shrub 
or plant of the field was yet in the ground; in which God had 
not yet made it to rain upon the earth; before there was any 
man on the earth; and when, for the lack of rain, dense mists 
watered all the face of the ground. It is noteworthy that Moses 
(as it happened with other prophets after him, 1 Pet. 1: 10, 11), 
introduces here into his narrative a seeming fragment, which 
probably neither he nor any one else among the ancients were 
capable of explaining, and the meaning of which the discoveries 
of modern science, within the last hundred years, have only be- 
gun to reveal to us, by bringing to our knowledge the real facts 
of the case. The words seem to point to those extremely remote 
geological ages, during which there was in fact no man, nor 
trees, nor plants, such as we now know; when in an opaque 
light, in the midst of a densely humid atmosphere, of excessive 
heat and perpetual mists, which excluded the rays of the sun, 
there began that luxuriant and most abundant vegetation, of low 
types, which formed the vegetable mould of the earth, and which 
the beneficent hand of Divine Providence was converting into in- 
exhaustible mines of mineral coal for the future use of man. 

But whatever may be the difficulties of this fragment (vr. 
4 — 6), the passage seems to unanswerably refute the allegation of 
a creation effected in six natural days; because, in the midst of 
much that is incomprehensible, it speaks of a period (and by Am* 



26 GENESIS 

plication a long period) anterior to the creation of man, in which 
it had not yet rained, and instead of rain an abundant and dense 
mist went up from the earth which watered the whole face of the 
ground. Now then, it is certain that God made the earth to arise 
out of the midst of the waters on "the third day," and on "the 
sixth day" man was created. It is most evident, therefore, that 
if these had been days of twenty-four hours, the soil would have 
been wet enough without any further need of either rain or mists 
for a very long time. But according to this passage, during that 
epoch mists supplied the lack of rain. 

[Note 6. — On the patriarchal traditions and the documents 
of which Moses may have availed himself in the composition of 
this book. Some suppose that the inspiration of Moses implies that 
the Holy Spirit revealed to him the facts which he relates, be- 
sides guiding him in the arrangement and writing of them. 
Such a supposition is not only incredible in itself, but sins griev- 
ously against that principle of the economy of supernatural power 
which we observe always in the Bible; viz., that of not doing 
by divine power what man is well capable of doing for himself. 
Luke informs us in the introduction to his Gospel (ch. 1: 2, 3), 
that before setting about to write it, he "had accurately traced the 
course of things from the first," applying for information, no 
doubt, to those who had been eye-witnesses of what he was about 
to relate. In the first ages of the world, before the art of writing 
and the composition of books, histories and stores of useful 
knowledge were preserved by means of oral tradition, which 
was in many cases verbal as well. It is well known that the 
long poems of Homer were by this means preserved and propa- 
gated textually, during many ages, before they were committed 
to writing. In the days before the Flood, when men lived almost 
a thousand years, this would be easier still, and the trust- 
worthy communication of historical facts from fathers to chil- 
dren was better attested and was more reliable than happens 
oftentimes in our days of printing, when it is as easy to dissem- 
inate and preserve falsehood as truth. According to the common 
chronology, Adam lived contemporaneously with Methuselah for 
243 years; and Methuselah with Noah for 600 years. Noah died 
two years before the birth of Abraham; and Shem, Noah's son 
and companion in the ark, was contemporary with Abraham for 
150 years. Overlapping each other in this way, as did the lives 
of the patriarchs, and giving each other the hand, so to speak, for 
the communication of historical facts, there were not more than 
four steps to take between Abraham, "the father of believing 
men," and Adam, the father of the human race: Abraham, Shem 



CHAPTER 2: 4—6 27 

Noah, Methuselah, Adam. (See Note 13 on the longevity of 
the antediluvian patriarchs.) It is scarcely possible, therefore, 
that Abraham should have failed to have direct and trustworthy 
information of much that is related in the first eleven chapters of 
Genesis; and equally impossible that this information, or much 
of it, should not reach to the times of Moses, in a straight and un- 
broken line: Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Levi, Kohath, Amram, Moses. 

At one time the rationalists who deny that Moses was the 
author of the books that bear his name, had the characteristic 
valor to say roundly that the art of writing was not known 
in the days of Moses; without imagining that the "monu- 
ments" of Egypt and of Babylon were in a little while to be 
published to the civilized world, and prove that in those coun- 
tries, the art of writing, and even of engraving historical docu- 
ments on stone, was known and practised many years before 
Moses and Abraham. In Babylon there have been deciphered 
Babylonian accounts, on tablets or cylinders of baked clay, of the 
creation of man and the institution of the rest of the seventh day, 
of the temptation and fall of man, of the deluge, etc., which, for 
substance, are very much like the accounts we find in the Bible. 
It is therefore altogether probable that Moses had at hand not 
only many particular traditions, but perhaps some documents of 
the greatest interest and importance, which he may have incor- 
porated with his history; the Spirit of inspiration that guided 
him, vouching for the accuracy of all that he may have so 
admitted. 

The first section of the book, with its narrative of the creation 
(ch. 1 — 2: 3), may have been of this nature, — a verbal or per- 
haps a written tradition, already old in the days of Moses. The 
second section of the book (ch. 2: 4 — ch. 3: 24) bears indications 
of having been a document, or special history. In the first sec- 
tion, the Supreme Being is called always and only "God"; in the 
second, he is called always and only "Jehovah God," except in the 
interview between the Serpent and the Woman. So far as I can 
ascertain, "Jehovah God," as a designation of the Supreme Being, 
does not again occur in the writings of Moses (except in Ex. 
9:30); for "Jehovah, God of Shem," of "Abraham," etc., is a 
different matter. And I do not find it any more in the Bible, ex- 
cept in Ps. 80 and in the prophecy of Amos. The history of the 
Deluge and of the tower of Babylon may belong to the same 
class, without detracting anything from the prophetical character 
and inspiration of Moses.] 

It is also worth our while to note in passing the absolute 
negation which in this passage is made of the existence of any 



28 GENESIS 

man in the earth prior to Adam: "And there was no man to till 

the ground." 

2: 7 — 14. A MORE CIRCUMSTANTIAL NARRATIVE OF THE CREATION 
OF MAN. THE GARDEN OF EDEN. 

(4004 b. c. According to the LXX, 5503; Hales 5411.) 

7 And Jehovah God formed man of the dust of the ground, and 
breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a 
living soul. 

8 And Jehovah God planted a garden eastward,* in Eden: and 
there he put the man whom he had formed. 

9 And out of the ground made Jehovah God to grow every tree 
that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also 
in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and 
evil. 

10 And a river went out of Eden to water the garden, and from 
thence it was parted, and became four heads. 

11 The name of the first is Pishon : that is it which compasseth 
the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold ; 

12 And the gold of that land is good : there is bdellium and the 
onyx stone. 

13 And the name of the second river is Gihon : the same is it 
that compasseth the whole land of Cush. 

14 And the name of the third river is Hiddekel :f that is it 
which goeth in front of Assyria. And the fourth river is the 
Euphrates. 

[*Or, of old time.] jThat is, Tigris. 

The sacred writer having referred to a period when there 
was no man in the earth, proceeds now to relate how Jehovah 
created him. The Bible contains several very clear and explicit 
allusions to what vr. 7 declares in the most positive manner; to 
wit, that the first man was formed of the dust (or clay) of the 
ground; as in ch. 3: 19; Ps. 90: 3; Eccl. 12: 7; 1 Cor. 15: 47, 48, 
49. And Moses in this place affirms in the most emphatic 
manner that this dust or clay, wrought into human form, had 
neither respiration nor semblance of life, until "Jehovah God 
breathed into his nostrils the breath of life," when man came to 
be what birds, and reptiles and fishes and quadrupeds had been 
before him, to wit, "a living soul." See Note 4, on "living 
souls," page 15. This is what Moses in the Hebrew text (which 
the Modern Spanish Version exactly follows) affirms, and the 
science best deserving of the name reaffirms; and it goes to 
show that the contention of evolutionists, that the human race 
was descended from a line of bestial progenitors, is altogether 
lacking in solid basis. When Luke is giving, in ch. 3 of his Gos- 
pel, the genealogy or descent of Jesus Christ our Lord, according 
to the flesh, tracing it backward to its source, he comes in vr. 37 
to Methuselah, and continues thus: "Methuselah, who was the 
son of Enoch, who was the son of Jared, who was the son of 






CHAPTER 2: 7—14 29 

Enosh, who was the son of Seth, who was the son of Adam, who 
was the son of" ... Of whom shall we say? "Of a four- 
handed beast ("quadrumana"), of the limurian or monkey 
family," answers the evolutionist. But Luke, by inspiration of 
the Holy Spirit affirms — "who was the son of Seth, who was 
the son of Adam, who was the son of God." How deep must be 
the native antipathy of the human heart to God and to godliness, 
when men of the highest scientific standing would some of them 
prefer to expunge the words "who was the son of God," and 
write instead, "who was the son of an anthropoid ape!" 

In preparation for the advent of this man, so highly privileged, 
"the image and likeness," not of a beast, but of his Maker, God 
had already provided for him a place of delicious habitation, 
the Garden of Eden. Eden was not the Garden, but the country 
or district in which the Garden was located, in the eastern part 
of which was situated this earthly paradise. Instead of to the 
"eastern part," which has for us no particular signification, some 
prefer the equally legitimate sense, "of old," or "of ancient 
time"; giving us to understand, that God for a long time past 
had been preparing a place for man. The word "paradise" is 
Persian, and is only used three times in the Bible, and that only 
in the New Testament, as a designation of the heaven of the peo- 
ple of God, both in death and in the resurrection. Luke 23: 43; 
2 Cor. 12: 2 — 4; Rev. 2: 7. Ezekiel speaks several times poetically 
of "Eden, the garden of God" (ch. 28: 13; 31: 9, 16, 18). Isaiah 
(ch. 51: 3) and Joel (ch. 2: 3) also use "Eden" as a term of com- 
parison, with allusion to this garden of delights. There, with an 
abundant provision of natural food and of fruits and flowers, in 
innocence and highly favored with the daily company of God, 
without the need of other clothing than the "robe of righteous- 
ness" and the "beauty of holiness," with no consciousness of 
shame, and without the need of any other domicil than the shelter 
of the dense boughs, or some fresh grotto, the human race began 
its existence. Two trees in particular call our attention at the 
outset: "the tree of life," which in ch. 3:24 disappears from our 
sight, when man lost the right to its use, to present itself anew 
at the end of the human redemption, when through Jesus Christ 
he has recovered "the right to the tree of life" (Rev. 22:2, 14; 
2:7); and "the tree of the knowledge of good and evil," which 
has cost Adam and his posterity so dear. 

It is possible or probable that the Deluge of Noah caused 
very great alterations in the configuration and topography of 
those countries; but the Euphrates and Tigris (Heb. Hiddekel) 
of vr. 14, are undoubtedly the same rivers which in ancient and 



30 GENESIS 

modern times bear these names; and it seems probable that 
Eden, with its garden, was situated near the confluence of 
these rivers, which at that time was very close to the Persian 
Gulf, if not, in fact, at the point where they emptied into it. The 
other two, if they were in fact "rivers,"" must have been lost in 
the time of the Deluge. But it is the opinion of many interpreters 
that the word "river" is here used in the sense of the Spanish 
"ribera," and means a "shore" whether it be of the sea or of 
some river — a sense which it has in several passages of the 
ancient classics — to indicate the coasts of the Persian Gulf; which 
near the union of these two rivers take the one towards India, 
with its great river, the Indus, and the other towards Africa, 
with its great river, the Nile. In those remote times, when the 
knowledge of geography was very limited, and maps did not yet 
exist, there would naturally be much confusion in matters of this 
kind. 

Others suppose that Eden with its paradise was on the high 
lands of Armenia, where the Euphrates and the Tigris have 
their source, and that its climate has changed greatly since that 
time. See Conant on Gen. 2: 10 — 14. But the other is the 
ordinary opinion. 

2: 15 — 17. THE TRIAL OF MAN. (4004 B. C.) 

15 And Jehovah God took the man, and put him into the garden 
of Eden to dress it and keep it. 

16 And Jehovah God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree 
of the garden thou mayest freely eat : 

17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt 
not eat of it : for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt 
surely die. 

Even in paradise was found the law of labor. Man was not 
placed in the garden of Eden to live a self-indulgent and in- 
dolent life, but "to dress it and to keep it." And as God had 
from the beginning "blessed the seventh day and hallowed — 
or sanctified — it" (vr. 3, that is, set it apart from a common to a 
sacred use), it is a good and legitimate inference that there, in 
Eden, and before there was sin in the world, or death, man was 
expected to observe the rule of working six days and observing a 
holy rest on the seventh; a rule which has given such beneficent 
results in the Christian lands which observe it. 

Of all the trees of Eden, including the tree of life, man might 
freely eat, with but the single exception of "the tree of the 
knowledge of good and evil." On the tree of life, see the com- 
ment on ch. 3: 22. It is enough to say here that since man had 
full right and liberty to eat of this tree every day, it seems evi- 



CHAPTER 2: 15—17 31 

dent that its special virtue to give life did not consist in his eat- 
ing of it once, nor twice (for Adam and Eve must often have 
eaten thereof), but in eating of it constantly, and in "having a 
right to the tree of life." Rev. 22: 14. 

"The tree of the knowledge of good and evil," from the use 
of which he was to abstain under penalty of death, some sup- 
pose to have been a tree that was naturally poisonous; for 
which cause God admonished him not to touch it. But it is 
morally impossible that God should have placed a poisonous tree 
in paradise. It is rather to be supposed that the tree was in itself 
good, and that any other tree of paradise would have had the 
same name and effect, if God had forbidden its use. Man knew 
the good, but he did not know it thoroughly, because he did not 
know its opposite. There is therefore this biting irony in the 
words of the Serpent: That by eating of this tree, he would 
know the good, by his loss of it; and he would know the evil, by 
his own experience of it. The distinction, therefore, of good 
and evil he did not know, because he had no conception of what 
evil was. But 

"Where ignorance is bliss, 'tis folly to be wise." 

It seems evident, also, that the angels, each for himself, had, 
after his creation, to pass through a period of probation; and 
that some of them fell from their original estate, and now form 
the "kingdom of darkness," under Satan their king, in antag- 
onism with the "kingdom of God"; while those who remained 
faithful were confirmed in holiness and glory (2 Pet. 2: 4; 
Jude vr. 6), and are called by Paul the "elect angels," 1 Tim. 
5: 21. It seems probable that the possession of personality, in- 
telligence and free-will makes it necessary that every rational 
being should have to pass through such a trial, either in his 
own person, or in that of his representative; as we passed ours 
in our first father Adam. From the operation of this rule not 
even the eternal Son of God could be exempted, when he be- 
came man. Matt. 4: 1; Heb. 2: 10, 18; 5:8. It is possible that 
the trial of a self-propagating race, where the individual mem- 
bers of it are born incapable of doing anything, and their char- 
acter and destiny are determined principally by the teaching, 
example and training of their parents — it is possible, — I say 
more, it is even probable, that only as a race could its trial be 
equitably made. In any case, it is certain that God, who 
loves us better than we love our children (John 3: 16 — 18; Rom. 
8: 32), who could not err in his infinitely wise counsels, and 
being himself the infinite Reason, could not act arbitrarily, chose 



32 GENESIS 

that it should be so, and deposited in the hands of our first 
father the character and destiny of his posterity, together with 
his own. We readily believe that as this was the counsel and 
purpose of God, and as the sin of mankind was to cost him the 
sacrifice of his beloved and only-begotten Son (John 3: 16, 17), 
this was the most just and reasonable trial that the case admitted 
of, and that it was verified under the conditions most favorable 
for us; for while it is certain that, if Adam fell into apostasy and 
ruin, all his posterity would fall with him; it is not less certain, 
that if he had preserved his primitive integrity, by keeping the 
covenant of his God, during the limited time of such trial, he 
would have been confirmed in the righteousness and true holiness 
in which he was created, and his posterity would participate in 
the same happy condition, as their inalienable patrimony. All 
Christians understand, with little variation, that such was the 
relation which Adam bore to his posterity; and for this cause we 
call this transaction a "covenant"; because results of such tran- 
scendent importance, embracing the welfare or the ruin of 
innumerable human beings, could not have been left to chance, 
nor to the natural laws of hereditary descent. See Note 7, on the 
Covenant made with Adam. 

It is also to be supposed, as we gather from the condition and 
transformation of the just who are alive at the advent in glory 
of Jesus Christ (who in the twinkling of an eye will be trans- 
formed, without dying, into the physical condition of the dead 
raised up in immortality and life, in power and glory, John 21: 
23; 1 Cor. 15: 51, 52; 1 Thes. 4: 16, 17), that if our first parents 
had victoriously resisted the subtleties and solicitations of the 
Tempter, as says Dr. Charles Hodge, an analogous change 
would have passed on them, and that their descendants would 
have been born into the same privileged condition. A thousand 
times better this, than that each individual of the race should 
pass through the trial for himself, under conditions vastly more 
unfavorable. In any case, we accept this most certain maxim, 
that whatever our God does, is, and must forever be, holy, wise, 
just, good, and fitting. 

It will be important to add at this point, that we Evangelicals 
believe that when Adam violated the condition of life and in- 
curred the penalty of death, if God had not had in view the pur- 
pose of redemption for us, he would at once have put an end to 
the race, assigning to the guilty pair their part with the angels 
who sinned. 2 Pet. 2: 4. We do not believe, nor is such a 
thing taught in Scripture, that God would have left the chil- 
dren of Adam to perish for this his sin, without their active partic- 



CHAPTER 2: 15—17 33 

ipation in his apostasy. We further believe that the infant 
children who have died from the beginning of the world, as 
they participated in the sin and fall of Adam, without act or 
consent of their own, so in like manner, without act or consent 
of their own, they are saved by Christ, through the operation 
of the Holy Spirit, who works when, where and how he pleases. 
So that the propagation of a lost race was permitted only in 
view of the prospective work of the redemption of Christ, who, 
with allusion to this, is called "the last Adam" (1 Cor. 15: 45), 
and "the Lamb that was slain from the foundation of the world" 
Rev. 13: 8. 

[Note 7. — On the Covenant made with Adam. This trans- 
action is called a covenant in Hos. 6:7: "Like Adam they 
have transgressed the covenant." R. V. So then it has the 
name of covenant in the Holy Scriptures. But besides this, we 
so designate it — 

1st. Because the penalty and the promise, as also the tre- 
mendous consequences involved for good or evil, declare that 
it was a covenant. Only the penalty is mentioned; but the fail- 
ure to mention the promise does not cause any one to doubt that 
there was such a promise, and a promise of eternal life. 2nd. 
Because all the great transactions of God with his people, and 
with regard to his people, have been always by way of cove- 
nant. 3rd. The remedy of our evil, through the Second Adam, 
is precisely by way of covenant, as the Scriptures many times 
declare. Paul, in that parallel which he traces in Rom. 5: 12 — 19, 
between Adam and Christ, between the man who damned the 
world and the divine man who saves the world — between him 
who lost all his race, and him who saves all of his — says nothing 
about a covenant; but it would be very inconsistent to assume 
that Paul did not believe in the covenant of redemption, which he 
so extensively treats of in other places under that name. Gal. 
4: 24; Heb. 12: 24. Well then, if this was a covenant, the agree- 
ment with Adam was no less a covenant. 

The condition of the covenant was that of perfect obedience; 
the express prohibition was that of eating of the tree of the 
knowledge of good and evil. Man fell, not by the act of "eat- 
ing an apple," as it is often flippantly said, but by the act of 
sinning against God; the particular act of disobedience by which 
he sinned and so fell, being that of eating the forbidden fruit. It 
is important to observe this distinction. Any other sin that 
Adam might have committed would undoubtedly have produced 
the same result; but as it was morally impossible that one who 
was holy, and loved righteousness, should choose to do what was 



24 GENESIS 

wicked in itself, and abhorring what was evil, should resolve *o 
commit it, the trial, in order to be a trial, could not turn on 
things that are in themselves right or wrong, but on something 
which is in itself of indifferent quality — precisely like the act of 
eating, or not eating, of a certain tree which God had forbidden 
him to use. 

The penalty of the violation of this covenant was death; a 
word whose full significance man could not then comprehend, 
nor is it yet given to us to penetrate fully its meaning. It is 
very important to observe that the covenant was made with 
Adam, before the creation of Eve, and was conditioned on his 
obedience, and not on hers.'] 

2: 18 — 25. THE CREATION OF WOMAN. MARRIAGE. 

(4004 b. c.) 

18 And Jehovah God said, It is not good that man should be 
alone ; I will make him a help meet for* him. 

19 And out of the ground Jehovah God formed every beast of the 
field, and every bird of the heavens ; and brought them unto the 
man to see what he would call them : and whatsoever the man called 
every living creature, that was the name thereof. 

20 And the man gave names to all cattle, and to the birds of the 
heavens, and to every beast of the field; but for manf there was not 
found a help meet for him. 

21 And Jehovah God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, 

22 and the rib, which Jehovah God had taken from the man, made 
he a woman, and brought her unto the man. 

23 And the man said, This is now| bone of my bones, and flesh 
of my flesh : she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out 
of Man. 

24 Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and 
shall cleave unto his wife : and they shall be one flesh. 

25 And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were 
not ashamed. 

*Or J answering to [—the counterpart and completion of himself]. 

■fOr, Adam. 

[?//e&. "this time (it is) bone," etc.] 

It would be ignoring the genius and usage of the Hebrew 
tongue to infer from vr. 19 that God made to pass before the 
man, in interminable succession, the totality of the animals of 
the field and of the fowls of heaven. He gained his object by 
making to pass before him, in pairs, all, or the greater part of 
known animals and birds. As they passed thus before him, the 
man gave to each pair its proper name. A circumstance of 
great importance is this, and makes clearly manifest that the 
gift of speech was natural to man; that he was not a savage, nor 
a half brute, who slowly acquired the possibility of communicat- 
ing with his fellows; but that before God had formed his 
companion Eve, he possessed it in such perfect degree, that he 



CHAPTER 2: 18—25 35 

was able to perform the extremely difficult office of giving names 
to all the animals. 

While Adam thus in succession designated by name the dif- 
ferent families of the animal creation, he could not fail to no- 
tice that each had a companion meet for it, and that he was the 
only exception. So God, as is his wont, made him to have a 
deep sense of what he most needed, before he supplied his want. 
Causing then a deep sleep to fall upon him, he took from his 
side one of his ribs, and made it into a woman, and presented 
her to him when Adam awoke. It is a very significant fact that 
he who made man of the dust should have made woman of that 
dust refined, forming her out of a part of man himself. The 
commentator Matthew Henry says "that the woman was formed 
out of man — not out of his head, to rule over him; not out of 
his feet, to be trod upon by him; but out of his side, to be his 
equal; from beneath his arm, to be protected; from near his 
heart, to be loved." 

"A help meet for him" means, according to the Hebrew, 
answering or corresponding to 7um=the counterpart and com- 
pletion of himself. In a racial sense, the two halves (cor- 
responding to each other) make one whole. "They twain shall be 
one flesh." 

Adam, when he saw her, made in the image and likeness of 
himself (1 Cor. 11: 7), exclaimed, with allusion to the former 
occasion, when successively every kind of animal was accom- 
panied by its mate: "This time (Mod. Span. Vers.), it is bone 
of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called woman, be- 
cause out of man was she taken." The Hebrew words for "man 
and woman" are "Ish and Isha," the masculine and feminine 
forms of the same word. 

There and then God instituted marriage — the union of one 
man and one woman in lasting and inviolable bonds. See Note 
24, on marriage, in comment on ch. 24: 67. The union is lasting 
while it remains inviolate, and because inviolable, it is dis- 
solved by being violated. Jesus clearly teaches in Matt. 19: 3 — 9, 
that while it is not lawful for a man to put away his wife 
for every cause and take another in her stead (as the Jews 
practiced it, and as is the use in Roman Catholic countries, with 
the vast multitudes called in Spanish "amancebados"*) never- 

*In all Roman Catholic countries — unless R. C. Ireland, under Protes- 
tant rule, be an exception — the shameless exactions of the priests in the 
celebration of their so-called "sacrament of marriage" (of which they 
have the complete monopoly), have forced an incredible proportion of the 
people to adopt the easy expedient of "amancebamiento" (self -constituted 
marriages of convenience) — in which (in Latin America certainly) the 



36 GENESIS 

theless "fornication" — a word which frequently is used in the 
Bible for matrimonial infidelity, see ch. 38: 24; 2 Kings 9: 22 — 
forms a valid and legitimate cause for so doing. Of this union 
of the sexes, instituted in paradise, Jesus says: "What God has 
joined together let not man put asunder" (Mark 10:9); and 
the apostle Paul says: "Because of fornications, let every man 
have his own wife, and every woman have her own husband" 
1 Cor. 7: 2. 

"Naked." In their state of innocence, modesty did not re- 
quire clothing as a covering for shame; and in that delicious 
climate of Eden it was not necessary for protection. Of God 
it is said: "He covered himself with light as with a garment" 
(Ps. 104: 2); and it is a probable opinion that in paradise their 
very holiness and innocence served Adam and Eve for a cover- 
ing; a covering of which they divested themselves when they 
sinned against God. This verse bears on its face the evidence 
of being true history. To whom but God, or the holy angels, 
would it ever have occurred to say: "And they were both 
naked, the man and his wife; and they were not ashamed"? 
vr. 25. 

CHAPTER III. 
ves. 1 — 7. the temptation, the fall. (Of uncertain date.) 

1 Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field 
which Jehovah God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, 
hath God said, Ye shall not eat of any tree of the garden? 

2 And the woman said unto the serpent, Of the fruit of the trees 
of the garden we may eat : 

3 but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, 
God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest 
ye die. 

priests too often take the load ; an arrangement which lasts only so long 
as convenient, when the union is dissolved with or without consent of 
parties, and they are then free to enter into new arrangements of the 
same sort. El Faro (Mexico City, Feb. 15, 1904) says editorially that 
in some of the States of that Republic "the number of families living in 
this immoral way is seventy per cent." Ancizar, in his Peregrinacion de 
Alpha, mentions district after district in the Andine region of Colombia 
S. A., in which the illegitimate births are 50 per cent and upwards. 
Things may be better in Roman Catholic Europe ; yet even there, in many 
cities they average from one third to one half of the total population, 
and sometimes more : 33 per cent in Paris ; 35 in Brussels ; 51 per cent 
in Vienna, and G5 in Gratz. See Seymour's Evenings with the Romanists, 
Preliminary Chapter on The Moral Results of the Romish System, for 
the official figures. Seventy-five per cent is said to be a common average 
in Venezuela ; and yet many American Protestants think it is a waste of 
time and money, and "a gratuitous wrong to a Christian Church," to send 
missionaries to Roman Catholic lands ! — Tr. 



CHAPTER 3: 1—7 37 

4 And the serpent said unto the woman, Te shall not surely 
die: 

5 for God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your 
eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as God, knowing good and evil. 

6 And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food and 
that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired 
to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat ; and she 
gave also unto her husband with her,* and he did eat. 

7 And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that 
they were naked ; and they sewed fig-leaves together, and made them- 
selves aprons.t 

[*4f. S. V.j when he tvas with her.] \Or, girdles. 

Paul wrote to the Corinthians (2 Cor. 11:3): "But I fear, 
lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve in his crafti- 
ness, your minds should be corrupted" — subtleties of Satan! The 
very same in both cases is the Serpent whom Paul feared. 
Even more expressly John speaks in Rev. 12: 9 of "that old 
Serpent that is called the Devil and Satan, the deceiver of the 
whole world." Satan, therefore, was that malignant spirit, 
who, under the form of a serpent, with subtlety deceived the 
woman, and by her means secured the fall and ruin of the 
man, and of his posterity. The woman was where she ought 
not to have been, near to the forbidden tree. Satan with 
malicious banter began to jeer her about the much beautiful 
fruit that she had around her, of none of which she was per- 
mitted to eat, by the positive prohibition of God. Instead of 
repelling the unworthy and God-dishonoring suggestion, which 
awakened in her breast doubts of his pure benevolence and 
disinterested love, and withdrawing at once from the danger- 
ous presence of her tempter, the woman (like multitudes of 
her tempted daughters) allowed the conversation, and went 
on with it, until that happened which was to be expected. 
Finding her communicative, although she showed that she 
perfectly understood the divine command not to eat of the 
fruit of that tree, nor even to touch it, under pain of death, 
the tempter went further and denied that what God had said 
was true, alleging that, instead of dying, they would become 
like God himself, having their eyes opened to know good and 
evil; insinuating into the ear of the woman, already half dis- 
posed to admit the blasphemous imputation, that God, en- 
vious of their happiness, wished to deny to them a good which 
he himself possessed. Having already gained so much, Satan 
pressed the siege, until the woman, desirous now of satisfying 
"the lust of the eye," and aspiring to wisdom, where igno- 



38 GENESIS 

ranee was bliss, put forth her hand and took of the fruit of the 
tree, and ate, and fell into sin. 

It seems that Satan improved the opportunity of finding 
her alone, beneath the fatal tree, where she ought never to 
have been. Paul says: "Adam was not deceived, but the 
woman being deceived fell into transgression." 1 Tim. 2: 4. 
If Adam had been with her, it is to be supposed that Eve 
would not have done it; but having already yielded to tempta- 
tion, she herself seduced her husband to break the covenant 
by his fatal act. It is impossible for us to penetrate the mo- 
tives which operated with Adam to do with his eyes wide 
open, what the woman had done "being deceived." The poets 
have imputed to him as his motive that of joining his fate 
with that of his beloved Eve, believing her to be already 
lost. In that case, the temptation was to choose between the 
homage and obedience which he owed to God and the tender 
love he felt towards the woman, — fatal temptation which still 
leads many to their eternal ruin. But the act of Eve did 
not cause our ruin; perhaps, being herself "deceived," the 
act in her case was not irreparable. The covenant was made 
with Adam for himself and for his posterity, including pos- 
sibly Eve also; and until he sinned, the covenant remained 
intact. She apparently was still in ignorance of the gravity 
of the act she had just committed; she did not know or feel 
her nakedness; in any case, she had compromised herself only; 
but the man, with full knowledge of what he was doing, 
instead of beseeching pardon for her, and for himself the 
protection of his God, chose to unite himself with her in her 
rebellion, and from her own hands accepted the fatal fruit, 
and ate; and they both fell together. In the act itself their 
eyes were opened, and they knew (what she seems not to 
have noticed before) that they were naked; and sewing to- 
gether an ill-made clothing of fig leaves, they endeavored to 
conceal their shame and nakedness from each other, and from 
the eyes of God. Not "aprons" as says our English Version, 
which would go only partially around them; but "girdles" as 
the R. V. gives in a marginal note: "girdles (or girders) 
which should cover them" — the last words in italics — is the 
Modern Spanish Version: a covering that girded them all the 
way round, is the sense of the Hebrew text. 

3 : g — 19. THE cuese. the promise. (Of uncertain date.) 

8 And they heard the voice of Jehovah God walking in the garden 
in the cool of the day : and the man and his wife hid themselves from 



CHAPTER 3: 8—19 39 

the presence of Jehovah God amongst the trees of the garden. 

9 And Jehovah God called unto the man, and said unto him, 
Where art thou? 

10 And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, 
because I was naked ; and I hid myself. 

11 And he said, Who told thee that thou wast naked? Hast thou 
eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest 
not eat? 

12 And the man said, The woman whom thou gavest to be with 
me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat. 

13 And Jehovah God said unto the woman, What is this thou 
hast done? And the woman said, The serpent beguiled me, and I 
did eat. 

14 And Jehovah God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast 
done this, cursed art thou above all cattle, and above every beast 
of th? field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all 
the days of thy life : 

15 and I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and be- 
tween thy seed and her seed : he shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt 
bruise his heel. 

16 Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy pain and 
thy conception ; in pain thou shalt bring forth children ; and thy 
desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee. 

17 And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto 
the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I com- 
manded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it ; cursed is the ground 
for thy sake ; in toil shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life ; 

18 thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee ; and thou 
Bhalt eat the herb of the field ; 

19 in the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou re- 
turn unto the ground ; for out of it wast thou taken : for dust thou 
art, and unto dust shalt thou return. 

Jehovah was accustomed, in the cool of the day, to visit 
and converse with Adam and Eve; but what had before been 
to them a delight, now causes them terror; and they hide 
themselves, self-condemned, among the thickest of the trees 
of the garden. Jehovah calls him, and the man confesses 
his shame and his fear. "Who hath told thee (Jehovah God 
answers him) that thou art naked?" Who hath taken from 
thee that veil of innocence which hid thy nakedness from 
thine eyes? "Hast thou eaten of the tree of which I com- 
manded thee that thou shouldst not eat?" The man (an 
example which his sons and daughters faithfully follow), in- 
stead of confessing and deploring his sin, casts the blame on 
the woman; and the very form of his words reveals not merely 
resentment against his companion, but the blackest ingratitude 
against God, who had made him so incomparable a gift, in- 
culpating him with Jiis part in the blame; "The woman whom 
thou didst put with me [Span. Ver.], she gave me of the tree, and 
I did eat." So it happens always with sinners, until true re- 
pentance touches their hearts. In like manner, the woman casts 
the blame on the serpent; and .then Jehovah pronounces sentence 



40 GENESIS 

upon each one of the three, beginning with the serpent. 
The serpent was to be of all the animal creation the most 
accursed. The subtlety of the serpent, of which vr. 1 speaks, 
refers primarily to this serpent in particular: the curse fell on it, 
and on all its kind; putting, as is seen and always has been seen, 
implacable hatred between men and this reptile; — a singular 
hatred, more than against any other part of the animal creation; 
a hatred for which we shall with difficulty find a reason without 
attending to this curse. It is not easy to explain to ourselves the 
universal fame which this diabolical reptile has had for wisdom 
among all the nations of antiquity, without reference to this act 
of treason against God, effected by the cunning of that "old 
Serpent who is called the Devil and Satan, the deceiver of the 
whole world." Rev. 12: 9. There is no reason for believing, as 
some say, that prior to this time the serpent walked erect. With 
regard to "eating the dust," it is sufficient to say that it is a part 
of his vile condition, and is best explained by reference to Ps. 
72: 9, 

"His enemies shall lick the dust"; 

and in fact, Micah 7: 17, in this very sense of degradation, says: 

"They shall lick the dust like the serpent; 
like crawling things of the earth, they shall come forth 
trembling out of their close places." 

The woman was to suffer many, prolonged and bitter pains 
of maternity, such as did not belong to her original condition: 
this is the sense of the Hebrew text, and not that God would 
increase them; and she who was to have been the companion 
and equal of man, in his state of innocence and perfection, was 
placed in subjection under him: "He shall rule over thee" [Span. 
Ver. "He shall be thy lord"]. Let the degradation and slavery of 
woman for 6,000 years testify of this, and her condition till today, 
in all non-Christian countries; a degradation, from which only 
the Gospel of Christ has freed her. Even the apostles of Christ 
told him roundly that if the man had not the liberty of dismissing 
his wife for every cause (much as one would dismiss his house- 
servant or his cook), without anything more than writing and 
giving her the three or four lines of a bill of divorcement, without 
the intervention of judge or jury— "if such be the condition of the 
man with his wife, it is not good to marry!" Matt. 19: 10. Lost 
to right reason must that woman be who does not know how to 
love and appreciate her Benefactor and Liberator, who re- 
stored her to the place of liberty and equality, to which God 



CHAPTER 3: 8— 19 41 

from the beginning has destined her, as the companion, but 
not the slave of man. See Matt. 19: 3—10; Deut. 24: 1. 

The man: on him, rather than on the woman, the curse fell 
with concentrated force: — it being understood, however, that 
she participated in the curse that fell on Adam and his poster- 
ity. For his cause the earth itself was to be accursed, and in- 
stead of the grateful labors of Eden, there began for Adam and 
his descendants the hard struggle for existence. Without arms, 
without tools or instruments of any p kind, without clothing, 
without habitation, cast out from the paradise which had been 
formerly his own, he entered upon the unequal contest, gaining 
his bread in the sweat of his face, until he should return to the 
ground from whence he was taken. 

[Note 8. — On Death. Adam lived 930 years; but according 
to the penalty of the broken covenant, he died in the very day 
that he ate the forbidden fruit; showing that "death" in the 
proper and full Bible meaning of the word, is not merely or 
chiefly the death of the body; but is rather to suffer the loss 
of the favor of God which is life, and to partake in all the 
temporal and spiritual ills involved in that unparalleled loss. 
It is frequently alleged, that so extensive and complete a ruin 
could not have resulted from an act as simple as the eating 
of the forbidden fruit. The allegation is specious, but false. 
It was not the eating of a certain fruit which caused so much 
ruin; it was the sinning against God; and it ought to be con- 
fessed at once, that we, as sinners, are totally incapable of 
judging with reference to the criminality or the necessary 
consequences of such an act. If we were in some cavern of 
deepest darkness, exposed to fall at every moment down fear- 
ful precipices or into dangerous pits, and our whole security 
and the hope of escaping from thence depended on a lighted 
candle which we carried in the hand, with the strictest injunc- 
tions to guard it as our very life; it would be an act of 
fatuity after it had been extinguished through our own care- 
lessness, to complain that it was not a hurricane but a simple 
breath of air which put it out! Thus it was that our welfare 
and life depended entirely on the favor of God; and his favor 
depended on the keeping of his covenant; for once the con- 
dition was violated on which depended "his favor which is 
life," man was submerged in death temporal, spiritual, eternal.] 

Nevertheless we believe, as has been already said (p. 32), 
that if there had not interposed the purpose of God in Christ 
to redeem us as fallen, at once the sentence of death, in its 
whole extension, would have overtaken these two sinners, be- 



42 GENESIS 

fore they had children to partake of their ruin. Besides this, 
with respect of the greater part of the descendants of the 
first trangressor, that part which has died in tender infancy, 
we believe that, as they were made partakers of the sin of 
Adam without any act of their own, so also, without any act 
of their own, they are made partakers of the righteousness 
and redemption of Christ. With regard to those who arrive 
at the age of personal responsibility (whatever that may be), 
and by their own act _ are sinners, there remains for them 
the choice of justifying and applauding the act of the first 
transgressor, by refusing to abandon his way of sin, or of 
condemning and repudiating it, and taking refuge in Christ, 
the second Adam, whom God has made the eternal life of 
men. Those who in Christian lands shut their ears against 
God's many and tender invitations, and refuse to repent and 
abandon their sins, do in effect say: "Well done, Adam! well 
done! We will faithfully follow in thy footsteps!" 

The promise. Enwrapped in the curse which fell upon the 
serpent, is found the first promise — the germ of all the other 
promises. It is clear that there is found here a curse upon the 
whole race of snakes, and a prophecy of the implacable hatred 
which exists between them and men. The words of this prophecy 
(for it is a prophecy as well as a promise) have, as many other 
prophecies have, a double application and a double fulfilment; 
as there was there not merely a serpent, but that "Wicked One," 
who availed himself of that disguise to disarm the suspicions of 
Eve, and to awaken her curiosity and interest. Eternal hatred, 
then, God put between the serpent and Eve and between the 
descendants of the one and the descendants of the other; but at 
the same time he put eternal hatred between Satan and "the 
Woman," and between his seed and her seed. Who then was "the 
Woman"? In the natural sense of the words, as we have 
already said, the woman was Eve and the serpent was the 
reptile of this name; and the two seeds are men and snakes 
respectively. But in symbolical usage, a serpent cannot be a 
serpent, nor a woman a woman; nor can the two respective 
seeds be snakes and men in general. The serpent is Satan 
as has been already shown, but who is "the Woman," and 
who are the seed of each respectively? It is not Eve; and 
for the same reason it cannot be Mary, the mother of Jesus. 
Who then can it be? The twelfth chapter of the Book of 
Revelation paints this woman with wonderful clearness, to- 
gether with her first-born Son, and also "the rest of her seed, 
against both of whom — the woman and her seed (the first born 



CHAPTER 3: 8—19 43 

and all the rest of "the seed of the woman"} — "that ancient 
Serpent, called the Devil and Satan," makes unceasing war. 
According to the constant use of both the Old and the New 
Testaments, that woman is the Church, who is one and the same 
throughout all the ages, the mother of Christ, "according to the 
flesh," and of us; he being "the first-born among many brethren." 
Romans 8: 29. Paul, speaking allegorically of the two wives of 
Abraham, Sarah and Hagar, — the free woman and the slave — 
says: "For this Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia, and answers 
to the Jerusalem that is now; for she is in bondage with all her 
children. Rut the Jerusalem which is above is free; who is our 
mother." Gal. 4: 25, 26. 

This is then "the Woman" of this prophecy — the mother 
of all the people of God, including Jesus Christ in his human 
nature, who is the first-born of them, the Chief, the Head, the 
King, and Redeemer of the other children. The Church, then, 
is neither Jewish, nor Protestant, nor Anglican, and still less 
Roman; for her also John portrays in the Revelation as a 
"woman," but very different from the former; — an unfaithful 
spouse (and therefore not a heathen power), seated upon the 
seven hills of Rome, Rev. 17: 3—6, 18. 

Between the Church, then, — the Church of the believing people 
of God in all ages and countries — and Satan, and between her 
seed and his seed, God has placed enmity (comp. Eph. 2:2, 3; 
2 Cor. 4: 3, 4); the which two seeds divide between themselves 
the whole race of Adam and Eve. And so Jesus says in Matt. 
13: 38: "The good seed are the children of the kingdom; but the 
tares are the children of the Wicked One"; and again, he said to 
the unbelieving Jews: "Ye are of your father the Devil, and the 
lusts of your father it is your will to do." John 8: 44. Those 
misguided Christians, then, who believe that they are doing a 
meritorious work in trying to harmonize the Church and the 
world, by minimizing the essential distinction which exists be- 
tween the two, are in open conflict with God, who says: "I will 
put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed 
and her seed." 

False and very pernicious is the favorite error of the Ro- 
man Catholics (which contradicts also the notes of their own 
Bible [Amat's certainly] upon chapter 12 of the Revelation), 
in applying to Mary the second part of this verse, making it 
to read: "She shall bruise thy head," etc., and representing Mary 
(as she is everywhere to be seen pictured) with the babe in her 
arms, and the serpent under her feet. In Spanish, woman and 
seed are both alike of the feminine gender, so that the relative 



44 GENESIS 

pronoun "she" is equivocal, as it can be referred to either of the 
two; hut in the Hebrew text the word translated "seed" is 
masculine, and the relative pronoun is "he", and not "she"; so 
that the Hebrew says explicitly: "He shall bruise thy head, and 
thou shalt bruise his heel." The word "wound", used in Spanish, 
and "bruise" in English, are neither of them fully adequate to the 
occasion: it is not an ordinary blow that is spoken of, but a 
mortal blow in both cases. "Break" is the word employed in the 
Modern Spanish Version; it being understood that if to break the 
heel means death, to break the head means utter destruction. 

I believe also that it is very inadequate to say (though this be 
the ordinary form of statement) that "the seed of the woman" 
is Jesus Christ our Lord, as such: he is more properly one indi- 
vidual of the Woman's seed: the first and chief est, and the Re- 
deemer of the rest of the seed, but by no means the totality of it. 
In the very striking presentation of the matter in the passage 
already quoted, he was her first-born (Rom. 8: 29; Rev. 12: 5) "the 
man child who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron"; 
who is carefully distinguished in vr. 5 from "the rest of her seed, 
who keep the commandments of God and hold the testimony of 
Jesus", against whom the Dragon (=the Serpent) went to make 
war, in vr. 17. Christ has died and risen again; and "has ob- 
tained (in his own person) eternal redemption for us" (Heb. 
9: 12); but Satan is still "the prince" and "god of this world" 
(Eph. 2: 2; 2 Cor. 4: 4), and will continue so till the "end of the 
Age", — when his time shall come. Matt. 13: 49, and 8: 29. The 
Serpent's head is wounded unto death, but still far from utterly 
broken. He is yet the head over the kingdom of darkness, and is 
untiringly active and of terrible power. He still holds, as Paul 
says, "the power of death" (Heb. 2: 14), and as a mighty lord, 
which he is, "he worketh in the children of disobedience and 
holds them captive to do his will," Eph. 2:2; 2 Tim. 2: 26. 
Strictly understood, this is a prophecy rather of the redemption, 
than of the Redeemer; as generally happens in the prophecies of 
the Old Testament; and if we look at it rightly, we shall see that 
Christ, when he placed himself in our stead, and when 
"Jehovah laid on him the iniquity of us all," had necessarily to 
redeem himself through the efficacy of his own blood, together 
with his people. [So Paul unmistakably teaches where he says 
that "the God of peace brought again from the dead the great 
Shepherd of the sheep, our Lord Jesus, through the blood of the 
everlasting covenant." Heb 13: 20. And as our sins were laid on 
him, not in a fictitious, but in a very real judicial sense, he could 
not get quit of them at all, except by atoning for them with the 



CHAPTER 3: 20—21 45 

efficacy of his own blood. If it had been as impossible for his blood 
to take away sins, as it was for that of bulls and goats, he would 
today be as dead as Judas Iscariot, — Judas for his own, and Jesus 
for the sins of others. On this fact and on the certainty of his res- 
urrection we base our assueance of pardon and eternal life. — Tr.] 

The saints of the ancient time embraced fervently the promise 
of redemption (Heb. 11: 10, 13, 16, 35, 39, 40), and they believed 
in Jehovah as their Redeemer and the God of their salvation; 
but it was little that they understood (nor was it necessary that 
they should understand it), of the person of that Redeemer, who 
was to give effect to the promise, by dying for our sins and rising 
again for our justification: if it had been otherwise, John the 
Baptist and the apostles of Christ would not have been so com- 
pletely ignorant as they were, and until after its accomplishment 
continued to be, of the expiatory death of Jesus and his resurrec- 
tion to immortal life. 

"The seed of the woman" then, ought to be understood of the 
totality of the people of God — all the seed, including Christ, as 
"the first-born" and the Liberator of the rest. The promise yet 
fails of great part of its fulfilment. So Paul said to the Chris- 
tians of Rome: "The God of peace shall oruise Satan under your 
feet shortly". Rom. 16: 20. He bruised (or broke) the heel (ac- 
cording to the usage of snakes) of Christ at his death, and of the 
rest of the seed of the woman, when they die: but Christ, for him- 
self and for all his, has broken the Serpent's head, or commenced 
the good work, with his own death and his resurrection to life 
eternal; and he will make an end of it with the "redemption of 
our body," at the last day. As Paul says, Christ, by his death 
and resurrection, "abolished death" (2 Tim. 1: 10), for himself, 
in the first place, and potentially for all his people together with 
himself, "destroying by means of death him that hath the power 
(—dominion) of death, that is the devil, and delivering them 
who through fear of death, are all their lifetime subject to 
bondage." (Heb. 2: 14, 15.) 

3: 20, 21. eve. the coats of skins. (Of uncertain date.) 

20 And the man called his wife's name Eve : because she was 
the mother of all living. 

21 And Jehovah God made for Adam and for his wife coats of 
skins, and clothed them. 

Adam called his wife Eve (=Life), because she was (or was 
to be) "the mother of all the living"; — another undeniable proof 
that according to the Bible, all mankind, in all its different races, 
tongues, colors and types, proceed from one and same stock. 
It is natural that Adam and Eve should have believed that the 



46 GENESIS 

penalty of the broken covenant would have taken effect at once, 
in the strict letter of the word, and that they would be destroyed 
immediately; and it is possible that when Adam called his wife 
"Life" (=Eve), he gave expression to the relief they both felt on 
seeing that it did not so happen. 

The coats of skins, in the opinion of the best interpreters of 
Scripture, ancient and modern, give us the first intimation we 
have of the divine origin of the rite of sacrifice. It is morally 
impossible that by an act of original creation God should have 
provided the skins to make these coats. It is no less impossible 
that he should have killed the animals to take off their skins, and 
then cast out their carcasses to the vultures. It is highly improb- 
able that, having taken off the skins, he should have given the 
flesh to Adam and Eve to eat. There does not remain, therefore, 
any other possible supposition but that God himself instituted, 
then and there, the rite of sacrifice (in token of his mercy, thus 
shadowed forth, when he accepted the death of the innocent victim 
in the stead of man the sinner), causing the flesh to be burned 
upon the altar, and converting the skins into coats, which should 
answer the double purpose of covering their nakedness and pro- 
tecting their persons. According to the levitical law, the skin 
was not consumed with the burnt-offering, but was for the priest 
who offered the sacrifice. Lev. 7: 8. When God, therefore, in- 
stituted this first sacrifice, there remained to him the skins of 
the burnt offerings to make into coats. And only thus can we 
reasonably explain the words of the apostle in Heb. 11: 4: "By 
■faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain"; 
because if the sacrifice had been something of his own invention, 
it could not have been "by faith"; since in the Biblical and 
Evangelical sense of the word, faith is a loving confidence in and 
acceptance of the word and promise of God; and Christ estab- 
lishes for us this general principle of worship: "In vain do they 
worship me, teaching doctrines which are the precepts of men." 
(M. S. V.) Matt. 15: 9. It is also interesting to notice how both 
the sacrifice at Eden's gate, and its great antitype on Calvary, 
furnished not only expiation for sin, but clothing which serves 
both for our protection, and to cover our nakedness and shame. 
From the poor lamb was taken away his covering and protection, 
to bestow them on the sinner. Thus it was with the "robe of 
righteousness" (Isa. 61: 10) which Christ bestows on us, and 
with which Paul desired evermore and only to be clothed. Rom. 
3: 21—24, and Phil. 3: 9. See also Rev, 3; 18, 



CHAPTER 3: 22—24 47 

3: 22 — 24. the banishment of our first parents from paradise 
and from the vicinity of the tree of life. the cheru- 
BIM. (Of uncertain date.) 

22 And Jehovah God said, Behold, the man is become as one of 
us, to know good and evil ; and now, lest he put forth his hand, and 
take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever — 

23 therefore Jehovah God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, 
to till the ground from whence he was taken. 

24 So he drove out the man ; and he placed at the east of the 
garden of Eden the Cherubim, and the flame of a sword which turned 
every way, to keep the way of the tree of life. 

In form, this banishment manifests the wrath of God on ac- 
count of their sin; and it is often supposed that the denying them 
access to the tree of life was depriving them of a real good; but 
in reality, it was just contrary. Whatever may have been the 
tree of life (mentioned here, and also in Rev. 22: 2, speaking of 
paradise regained), and whatever may have been its virtue to 
give life, it ought to be considered that immortality is not a good 
except for the pure and holy, and that an immortality of sin is 
necessarily eternal perdition. It is not conceivable that a race of 
sinners, like ourselves, at enmity with God and his law, his 
kingdom and his righteousness, loving what is evil and totally 
corrupted (spiritually) in mind and heart, "hateful and hating 
one another" (Tit. 3: 3), could exist in society under any other 
conditions than those which God imposed upon it in the day of 
its sin. Let the law of enforced labor in order to gain one's 
bread be revoked; let the law of sickness and other physical in- 
firmities be removed; let there be taken away from man the fear 
of death and the fact of death, without changing his depraved 
nature, and the result would be . . . well, the infidel and 
free-thinker shall say the word — "a hell." Besides this, it is al- 
together probable, or better said, it is altogether certain, that 
only by means of the death of Christ could there be made a 
satisfaction to divine justice, an atonement for our sins. Physi- 
cal death, therefore, on the one hand, makes social life possible to 
a race of sinners, during the brief space of time which we spend 
as a shadow on the earth; and on the other, only this made it 
possible to pay the ransom of our souls: "By means of death he 
(Christ) destroyed him who had the power (or dominion) of 
death, that is, the devil, and delivered them who through fear of 
death were all their lifetime subject to bondage." Heb. 2: 14. 

Those two sinners, therefore, having been banished from para- 
dise, Jehovah placed at the gate of it "the cherubim and a flam- 
ing sword, which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree 
pf life." It is difficult to determine the nature, class and office 



48 - GENESIS 

of the cherubim. Besides this case, the word occurs 73 times 
in the Bible; 44 times with reference to the symbolical figures 
standing at the two ends of the Ark of the Covenant, between 
which dwelt the God of Israel, and embroidered on the curtains 
of the Tabernacle, and likewise sculptured on the woodwork of 
the Temple; and 19 times it is used in the book of Ezekiel 
(chapters 1 and 10), with respect of those mysterious beings 
that bore, and in part formed, the "chariot" of the God of 
Israel. There were four of them, inseparable from the plat- 
form and the wheels; and all that apparatus, with its platform, 
throne, wheels, cherubim, animated by the same life, spirit 
and purpose, ivent to form one living being; by these circum- 
stances says Ezekiel, "I knew that they were cherubim." Ezek. 
10: 15 — 20. They each had four faces, that of a man, a lion, an 
ox and an eagle; they each had also four wings, and a hand, or an 
arm with a hand, beneath each wing. In the book of Revelation, 
chapters 4, 5, 6, etc., we have four living beings — again four — 
"in the midst," between the four and twenty elders and the 
throne of God; which also must have been cherubim; although 
this is not expressly said. But this time the four had six 
wings each (like the seraphim of Isa. 6:2), and they were 
each one of a different form; one like a lion, one like a calf, 
another had the face of a man, and the other was like a 
flying eagle. Rev. 4: 7, 8. 

The cherubim which overshadowed the ark of the covenant 
(Ex. 25: 18 — 22) had two wings and one face each; those of 
olive wood, ten cubits high, which were in the Holy of Holies 
of the Temple of Solomon, were probably of the same form; 
as also seem to have been those that were embroidered on the 
curtains of the Tabernacle and sculptured on the wainscoting 
and the doors of the Temple. Once only Ezekiel (ch. 41: 18), 
in the representation he gives of his ideal Temple, depicts for 
us cherubim of two faces — of a man and of a lion. Once David, 
in high and resonant poetry, (Ps. 18: 10), represents to us 
Jehovah as mounted upon a cherub and flying with impetuous 
sweep to the aid of his servant. From all this it seems evident 
that the cherubim were not an especial order of the celestial 
hierarchy, but that, like as the "twenty-four elders" of the 
Apocalypse were symbolical representations of God's redeemed 
people, rather than individual persons, so also the cherubim 
were symbolical representations of those celestial intelligences 
of high rank, that were charged in a special manner with the 
affairs and the interests of the human redemption; and who 
also served as the accompaniment of the God of Israel, under 



CHAPTER 3: 22—24 49 

the particular aspect of his relations to his people, manifested in 
the shekinah of glory on Mount Sinai, in the Tabernacle, and 
in the column of fire and cloud which guided and defended them 
in the desert. 

The common opinion that the cherubim grasped and wielded 
the flaming sword, is entirely without foundation. On the con- 
trary, there were several cherubim and only one sword; the 
former, representing or manifesting the divine presence, and 
the latter, the sword of his justice which forbade those two 
sinners to approach the tree of life. In Rev. 22:14 (R. V.) we 
see that only those who "have washed their garments" in the 
blood of the Lamb have "the right to come to the tree of life," 
yonder, in paradise regained. 

At this point the tree of life completely disappears from human 
history, to reappear once more, in the consummation of the ages, 
in apocalyptic representation of redemption completed. The 
intermediate chapters of the Bible, from Gen. 4 to Rev. 21, are 
filled up with the dark, sad history of the errors, sins, crimes, 
calamities, wars, famines, diseases and deaths, which have re- 
sulted from that one woeful act of that one man (Rom. 5: 12 — 19) 
which put out in our heavens the light of God, and consigned 
us to darkness, and death, — that darkness illumined, nevertheless, 
with the promises of the divine mercy and of the coming redemp- 
tion; while the sacred volume closes, as it began, with a new 
creation — "behold I make all things new" (Rev. 21:5) — "new 
heavens and a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness" 
(2 Pet. 3:13); and the dwelling of God is again and forevermore 
with men. Rev. chapters 21 and 22. 

[Note 9. — On the character and destiny of our first parents, 
Adam and Eve. God has left us in the most complete uncertainty 
with regard to this; and it ill befits us to endeavor to bring into 
light what he has purposely enshrouded with darkness. Not only in 
the 11th chapter of Hebrews, but in all Holy Scripture, the list 
of believing men begins with Abel, and not with Adam. It is 
clear that to them (Adam and Eve) God gave the first promise, 
and instituted for them the rite of sacrifice, covering their naked- 
ness with the skins of the victims of sacrifice; which vividly 
represents the garment which the Lamb of Calvary has pro- 
vided for us; but this does not prove that they accepted with faith 
and sincerity the offered mercy. The exclamation of Eve (ch. 
4:1) when she embraced her first son, makes undeniable allusion 
to the promise; but does not necessarily imply an evangelical 
faith in it, any more than the still clearer exclamation of Lamech 
signifies it, when Noah was born (ch. 5: 29); since it is almost 



50 GENESIS 

certain that Lamech was one of those sinners for whose cause 
the deluge came upon the world of the ungodly, dying as he did, 
according to the common chronology, only five years before that 
catastrophe. More appearance of faith and piety has Eve's 
exclamation when Seth (^Substitution) was born, and the name 
which she gave him (ch. 4:25): but that is not decisive. It is 
altogether possible, that, as in the case of the angels who fell, 
sinning with full knowledge, so also the sin of Adam and Eve 
had no remission, and that in the last day, when they shall see 
the innumerable multitudes who will "go away into everlasting 
punishment" as a result of their first transgression, they them- 
selves will desire to "go away" with them. Their sin has no 
resemblance to ours, that it should be treated in the same way. 
But however this may be, the Bible observes an absolute silence 
with regard to their repentance and faith, with regard to the 
pardon of their sins, and with regard to their character and 
destiny; with the object, perhaps, of placing in the most vivid 
contrast Adam and Christ; the man who damned the world and 
the divine Man who saves it. John 3:16, 17; 1 John 4:14.] 

CHAPTER IV. 

vrs. 1, 2. cain and abel. (Of uncertain date.) 

1 And the man knew Eve his wife ; and she conceived, and bare 
Cain, and said, I have gotten a man with the help of Jehovah. 

2 And again she bare his brother Abel. And Abel was a keeper 
of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground. 

The trial of Adam and Eve must necessarily have lasted some 
considerable time. In the formerly prevailing belief that the 
animals were created simultaneously with mankind, and a single 
pair of each species (just as it happened in the case of man 
himself), the opinion was well founded that our first parents 
passed several years in their state of probation, allowing time 
for a single pair of sheep to multiply sufficiently to provide the 
sacrifices whose skins served for the coats with which God 
clothed them. And although we now know for certain that the 
domestic animals (the last of the animal creation) had had 
opportunity to increase in number before man was created, 
nevertheless, Adam and Eve must have passed weeks and months 
in their state of innocence, and perhaps a year or two, before they 
fell into the transgression; and by the particular providence of 
God they had no children until after that; just as it happened to 
the sons of Noah, who, being all married before the flood, had 
no children till after it. Ch. 10:1. 



CHAPTER 4: 1, 2 51 

When Eve looked with admiration and maternal affection upon 
the new creature, her first-born son, she called him Cain 
(^Acquisition), saying: "I have gotten a man with the help of 
Jehovah,"— with undoubted allusion to the promise of God as 
to the "seed of the woman;" although it is impossible to pene- 
trate the meaning which she herself would give to her words. 
Some say that the words ought to be translated: "Ihave gotten 
the man Jehovah;" but although the words are perhaps sus- 
ceptible of this translation, it is wholly improbable, not to say 
impossible, that Adam and Eve should have had such knowledge 
of the doctrine of the incarnation of the second Person of the 
Trinity. But certainly it is natural that Eve should have be- 
lieved that the promised "seed" was born, who should break 
the serpent's head: if so, how sad her error! how woeful her 
mistake! 

"Abel (—Vanity") was the name given to the second son, with 
allusion to the misfortunes of his pious life, which ended only 
with his tragic death. 1 John 3:12. Cain was a tiller of the 
ground and Abel a pastor of sheep; a circumstance which comes 
to dissipate into smoke the idea, founded on very insufficient 
evidence, that it was not lawful to eat of flesh until after the 
deluge. Comp. Gen. 1:29 with 9:3. The fact that in paradise 
Adam was not to kill animals in order to eat them, does not 
imply that he was not to do so afterwards. Abel kept sheep for 
sacrificial purposes, no doubt, and to use their skins for cloth- 
ing; but undoubtedly also to eat. This is shown in vr. 4, where 
it is said that Abel offered in sacrifice to Jehovah "the firstlings 
of his flock, and the fat thereof' [Mod. Span. Ver. "the firstlings 
of his sheep, and their suets"']. According to the usage of the 
ancients, the firstlings of the flock and of the herd were for 
Jehovah, and when offered in sacrifice, it was probably as whole 
burnt offerings, all except the skin, which was for the priest 
(Lev. 7:8) ; while in the case of peace offerings, the olood and the 
suet were offered in sacrifice to Jehovah (Lev. 3: 16, 17), but 
the flesh was to be eaten. See Lev. 7:11-34. Abel, therefore, 
brought to God — for it would be an indication of much ignorance 
of the language and usages of the Hebrews to suppose that once 
only in his life-time, did he offer a sacrifice to God — the first- 
lings of his flock entire, less the skin; and of the rest, the suet 
and the olood; but he and the other members of the family ate 
the flesh. 

The translations of Valera and Scio, and of the English Ver- 
sions as well, which all say, "and of the -fat," or "of the fats," in- 
stead of "suet" or "suets," is unfortunate, and renders impossible, 



52 GENESIS 

as I think, the proper interpretation of this passage. God did not 
forbid the Jews to eat "the fat," nor require them to live on lean 
meat. The same thing happens in Lev. 3:16, 17 and 7:23-25, 
which absolutely prohibit under the severest penalty, the eating of 
the "suet," or sacrificial fat, but surely did not forbid the use of the 
fat"! This was the law: "All the suet [as it should be read] 
is Jehovah's. It shall be a perpetual statute throughout your 
generations, in all your dwelling places, that ye shall eat neither 
suet nor blood." The suet is the solid and hard fat that clings 
to the kidneys and the loins. This Abel gave to God in sacrifice, 
besides the firstlings of his flock; a clear indication, as I see it, 
that the flesh and the ordinary fat served him and the rest of 
the family for food. 

4:3 — 7. the two sacrifices. (Of uncertain date.) 

3 And in process of time it came to pass, that Cain brought of 
the fruit of the ground an offering unto Jehovah. 

4 And Abel, he also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of the 
fat* thereof. And Jehovah had respect unto Abel and to his offering : 

5 but unto Cain and to his offering he had not respect. Aid 
Cain was very wroth, and his countenance fell. 

6 And Jehovah said unto Cain, Why art thou wroth and why 
is thy countenance fallen? 

7 If thou doest well, shall it not be lifted up?t and if thou doest 
not well, sin coucheth at the door; J and unto thee shall be its desire; 
but do thou rule over it.|| 

["Mod. Span. Yer., firstlings of nls sheep, and of their suets.] 
[t-i. V. and M. 8. Y., shalt thou not be accepted?] 
ItA. V. and M. S. Y., sin lieth at the door.] 

l\\A. V., his desire, and thou shalt rule over him. M. S. Y. } thou shalt he 
his lord.] 

On a certain notable occasion — for it is not supposable that 
this was the only sacrifice that Abel ever offered — the two 
brothers brought their offerings in sacrifice to Jehovah. We 
know that prior to this Cain was wicked and Abel was just 
(see vr. 7, and 1 John 3: 12) ; but in this particular sacrifice we 
find the culminating point in the character and destiny of each. 
On comparing the business and occupation of the two brothers, 
we would say that Cain's was every way superior to that of Abel; 
and yet from that very circumstance came the temptation to 
despise the institution of God and those sacrifices which, since 
the fall of man, prefigured the expiatory death of Christ. Rev. 
13: 8. Cain "through the pride of his contenance, would not 
seek after God" (Ps. 10:4), nor did he care to seek in the flock 
of his brother an offering acceptable to Jehovah. In the Levitical 
law are prescribed the circumstances and conditions necessary in 
order "that the offering may be accepted" (Lev. 1: 3, 4; 7: 18); 



CHAPTER 4: 3—7 53 

and it is not to be supposed that in the beginning of the error 
and sin of the race, God was less concerned about the manner in' 
which sinners should approach him. See Heb. 11:6; Lev. 10:3. 

"Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering to 
Jehovah" — the produce of his own especial industry; grains, fruits 
and flowers; but Abel presented the blood and the palpitating 
flesh of his slaughtered sheep. In itself, and judging according 
to the light of nature and the appearance of things, Cain's offer- 
ing ought to have been in every sense more fitting and artistic, 
and more pleasing to any person of good taste, than that of Abel; 
which, in itself considered, was shocking to good taste and even 
repugnant to all right feeling. If it were a matter of his own 
invention, it ought to have been condemned as cruel and horrible. 
Nevertheless Jehovah accepted the offering of Abel; but he would 
not even look at the beautiful offering of Cain! From Heb. 11: 4 
we know that in this sacrifice testimony was given to Abel that 
he was righteous, God himself testifying his acceptance and appro- 
bation of his gifts and sacrifices — for, according to both texts 
there were several. We do not know in what manner God testi- 
fied his acceptance and his displeasure; but it was manifested 
in a marked and unequivocal way. According to the analogy of 
the word of God, it is natural to suppose that he answered Abel 
by fire from heaven (see Jud. 13: 20-23; 1 Kings 18: 37-39; 
1 Chron. 21:26-28); leaving in neglect and dishonor the beau- 
tiful and artistic offering of Cain. 

We already know that Abel was a holy man and that Cain 
was wicked (1 John 3:12); but it is certified to us that it was 
not for his holiness that the offering of Abel was accepted, but 
for his faith (Heb. 11: 4); nor was Cain rejected as a sinner, 
but for the entire lack of that "faith, without which it is im- 
possible to please God." Heb. 11: 6. Evangelical faith is not 
holiness, nor goodness, nor any good work of our own, although 
it is the fruitful source of all of these; but rather, it is the full 
assurance of the truth and certainty of the testimony which 
God has given us, simply because it is his testimony, and a 
hearty confidence that he will fulfil his declarations and his 
promises (which we accept), in spite of whatever obstacles may 
interpose. So that where there is no testimony and promise of 
Ood there can oe no evangelical faith. Since it is so, then, that 
"through faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice 
than Cain" (Heb. 11:4), it is clear that this was not a sacrifice 
of his own invention, as was that of Cain, but was oased on 
the word and promise of God; — an undeniable proof that the 
sacrifice of slaughtered animals had been established by God 



54 GENESIS 

himself, with probable allusion to the promise regarding "the 
seed of the woman," and in vivid representation of the Sacrifice 
of Calvary. Abel was a type of the true servants of God, who 
square their lives, their hopes and their worship by his ex- 
press word and promise, trusting in the unmerited mercy of 
God in Christ; while Cain, in his self-appointed sacrifice, was a 
type of rationalists and semi-rationalists on the one hand, and 
of Ritualists and Romanists on the other, who arrange their 
worship according to their own pleasure, and with whom a 
beautiful ceremony of human invention is worth more than all 
the positive institutions of God. The sacrifice of Cain was 
marked also by this special circumstance (in common with the 
ideas and usages of the irreligious of today), that it mani- 
fested his full satisfaction with himself, and said nothing of 
sin, nor of repentance, nor of expiation; while that of Abel 
speaks of all this, pointing as it were with the finger to the 
sacrifice of "the Lamb of God who taketh away the sin of the 
world". John 1:29; Rev. 13:8. 

Cain was very angry on account of the preference which God 
gave to his brother and his offering of faith; but Jehovah 
taught him that the fault was his own; for if he did well he 
would be accepted, but if not, the sin lay at his own door. And 
yet, in spite of the past, this was not to alter the natural rela- 
tions which existed between the two, for, as God told Cain, the 
rights of primogeniture were still his own: "To thee shall be 
his desire, and thou shalt be his lord" (M. S. V.) — or "rule over 
him" — the very same words spoken to Eve in ch. 3:16, to indi- 
cate her subjection to her husband. When Isaac conferred on 
Jacob Esau's birthright, he said to him: "Be thou lord of thy 
brethren, and let the sons of thy mother bow down to thee". 
Ch. 27:29. So simple and satisfactory is this sense of the 
words, that it seems unreasonable to seek for intricate ex- 
planations; as that which refers the word to sin, under the figure 
of a wild beast, crouching at his door to devour him; but which 
it was in the power of his hand to subdue, if he so desired. 

4: 8 — 15. the first muedee. (Of uncertain date.) 

8 And Cain told Abel his brother. And it came to pass, when 
they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother, and 
slew him. 

9 And Jehovah said unto Cain, Where is Abel thy brother? And 
he said, I know not: am I my brother's keeper? 

10 And he said, What hast thou done? the voice of thy brother's 
blood crieth unto me from the ground. 



CHAPTER 4: 8— 15 5!3 

11 And now cursed art thou from the ground, which hath opened* 
its mouth to receive thy brother's blood from thy hand ; 

12 when thou tillest the ground, it shall not henceforth yield unto 
thee its strength ; a fugitive and a wanderer shalt thou be in the earth. 

13 And Cain said unto Jehovah, My punishment is greater than 
I can bear.f 

14 Behold, thou hast driven me out this day from the face of the 
ground ; and from thy face shall I be hid ; and I shall be a fugitive 
and a wanderer in the earth ; and it will come to pass, that whoso- 
ever findeth me will slay me. 

15 And Jehovah said unto him, Therefore whosoever slayeth Cain, 
vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold. And Jehovah appointed a 
sign for Cain, lest any finding him should smite him. 

[*Heb. opened violently.] 

[fMod. Span. Ver., mine iniquity is too great to be forgiven.] 

"And Cain told his brother Abel"; that is he told him what 
Jehovah had said. More correct is this translation, and it bet- 
ter suits the case, than "Cain spake to his brother Abel." It 
seems as though Cain began a dispute about this matter with his 
brother; and when the two were together in the field, he rose 
up against his brother and killed him. 

According to the chronological system of Ussher, which is 
found in our Bibles, this happened in the year 129 in the life of 
Adam, one year before the birth of Seth, when Cain was 128 
years old, and Abel a little less. But it is impossible to believe 
that Cain and Abel should have lived to be 125 years of age 
without being married, having sisters who answered for this 
purpose, and there being urgent necessity to populate the earth; 
according to the first command which God laid on Adam and 
Eve: "Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and 
subdue it." Gen. 1: 28. The extreme brevity of these ancient 
histories makes it impossible to determine with any certainty 
points of this nature; but I believe that fifty or perhaps eighty 
years passed between the death of Abel and the birth of his 
"substitute," Seth, in which time many children were born to 
Adam and Eve. To believe that chapter five teaches us that in 
those ages men arrived very slowly at their maturity, and mar- 
ried very late in life, — as at 100, 120 or 180 years of age, is an ex- 
travagance; as we shall see in the following chapter. It would be 
as proper to believe that Noah did not marry till he was 500 years 
of age (ch. 5: 22), or to hold for certain that the antediluvian 
sinners passed a very long and a very chaste period of youth; for 
in Bible language to "take a woman" is to "take a wife." 

We note here the insolence with which the murderer replies 
to the interrogatory of Jehovah: "Where is Abel thy brother?" 
It is always the natural effect of sin to harden the heart, and 
fill it with arrogance towards God. Jehovah told him that he 



56 GENESIS 

had a perfect knowledge of the case, and said that the shed 
blood (Heb. "bloods"z=blood unjustly and violently shed) of his 
brother was crying to him for vengeance from the ground, 
which he had profaned with a brother's blood. Comp. Heb. 
12: 24. This personification of the blood which clamors for 
vengeance against him who shed it, is in vr. 10 transferred to 
the earth, or ground, outraged by the innocent blood shed upon it 
(see Num. 35: 33), which lifts up its voice in energetic protest, 
to curse him. In Numbers 16: 30 and Deut. 11: 6, the same 
Hebrew words are translated in the Modern Spanish Version 
"the earth opened with violence its mouth", when the ground 
clave asunder beneath Korah, Dathan and Abiram, and swal- 
lowed them up with their families; and according to the lexicog- 
rapher Gesenius, the Hebrew word patsah bears in its very form 
the idea of violence. In this case, however, the violence must 
be of a moral character; as if against its will and with utter 
repugnance, the earth opened its mouth to receive the innocent 
blood which Cain had shed upon it. In vr. 12 the personification 
is carried still further, — signifying that the earth would give 
him an unwilling return for his labor as a cultivator of the 
soil, and indignant, would grudgingly yield him its fruit; and 
he should become a fugitive and a wanderer upon the earth. 
Like to this is the curse which, in his heart, comes to every 
murderer, from that day to this; and not a few of them carry 
in their very faces "the mark of Cain." Vr. 15. 

The reply of Cain admits perfectly of two different transla- 
tions, of which some accept the one and some the other, ac- 
cording to what they consider to have been the state of his 
mind. In the alternative translation, which is given in the 
margin of the Modern Spanish Version, but here is in the text, 
his selfish thought is always turned on himself, and he complains 
against God that the punishment of his sin is excessive, and 
beyond his power to endure it. But a literal and exact transla- 
tion is that of the Spanish text; and it appears to me to indi- 
cate that Cain, seeing at last the irreparable effects of his crime, 
and overwhelmed with a sense of its enormity, and knowing 
(as every murderer must know it) that he well deserves death 
as a satisfaction to offended justice, exclaims, desperate, but 
not repentant; "My iniquity is too great to be forgiven!" and 
believes that he sees in every person he meets the avenger of 
his crime. I take it that this is the likelier sense, and more ade- 
quate to the occasion. Although God afterward ordained in- 
exorable pain of death for every wilful murderer, in this case 
he passed it by (probably in view of the very scant population 



CHAPTER 4: 8—15 57 

of the earth), threatening seven-fold punishment on any one 
who should kill Cain; and he placed a certain mark on him, lest 
whoever found him should kill him, in obedience to that natural 
instinct found in every human bosom, in all lands, and from the 
most primitive times, — the innate consciousness that the mur- 
derer is deserving of death. See Acts 28: 3 — 6. 

This fear of Cain furnishes us also with unquestionable proof 
that after the death of Abel there were many more people in 
the world besides Adam, and Eve, and Cain. The fear that 
haunted him, the belief that every one who met him would wish 
to kill him, was not a fear of phantasms. Although nothing has 
been so far said about the wife of Cain, it is probable that fifty 
or eighty years had elapsed since the creation of Adam and Eve 
(the date in the margin of our Bibles says 129) ; and it is cer- 
tain that they had many children, and even grandchildren, be- 
fore Seth was born (in the line of the promise), when Adam 
was 130 years old. Ch. 5: 3. 

[Note 10. — On the Death of Abel. What was the object of his 
faith and his hope? It is a horrible truth and was of evil omen 
for the coming generations of our race, that the first man 
born into the world was a murderer, and the second was his 
victim. What prospect then of any good remained for men in 
such a world? And as to Abel's future, what hope was there 
for him, and of him, in his untimely and unlooked-for death? 

Death was to him, and to all others, something completely un- 
known, since he was the first of the race to die. It is impos- 
sible, therefore, that the expectation of "dying and going home 
to heaven" (which to so many nowadays is about the sum total 
of the promised "salvation") had any part whatever in his faith 
and his hope. His ideal of the promised deliverance and salva- 
tion would almost necessarily be that of restoration to the happy 
condition from which his parents had fallen, and the complete 
recovery of the lost favor of God; and his faith, in order to be 
faith, would rest necessarily on that sure first promise of the 
Seed of the Woman, enlarged no doubt with verbal explana- 
tions. Peter tells us (Acts 3:21) that "Since the world began* — 
and therefore before the death of Abel — God had spoken by the 
mouth of all his holy prophets, of the times of the restoration 
of all things", when he will send (the second time) the risen 
Jesus, who is now in heaven: so that the hope of the restoration 
of the lost good, would perfectly suit the case of Abel. Nobody 

*The American Revision translates it, "by the mouth of his holy- 
prophets that have been from of old"; hut Peter certainly means to say, 
since prophecy began ; and therefore, since the first prophecy and prom- 
ise teas given. Gen. 3 : 15. — Tr. 



58 GENESIS 

knew, however (nor does anybody yet know), when this was or 
is to be; and the repeated notices that we have of the hope of 
Eve (ch. 4: 1 — 25), and that of Lamech (ch. 5: 29), prove that, 
just as the first Christians waited for the early return of Christ 
in power and glory, so, in those primitive times, men looked 
for the early advent of that Seed of the Woman, who was to 
break the Serpent's head. And, in substance, this is the very 
hope which Christ our Lord has left for us against the time of 
his return. See Rom. 16: 20: "The God of peace shall bruise 
Satan under your feet shortly". In Old Testament times, it was 
the intermediate condition of death which disquieted the hearts 
of the ancient servants of God — that unknown state of being 
which ensues immediately upon death, on which God, neither 
then nor now, has desired to shed more than a very little light; 
involving as it does a mystery incomprehensible to mortal men. 
That intermediate state, therefore, of incorporeal existence, and 
not the final inheritance of redemption, of glory and immortality, 
was what filled them with doubts and uncertainty (see Job 
10:21, 22; Ps. 6:5; 88:10—12; Isaiah 38:18; Ps. 49:15); 
just as would happen to us, if Christ by his death and resurrec- 
tion had not dissipated great part of the darkness of the grave. 

The faith of Abel was set on God as his Redeemer, and on 
the sure promise which he had given. But the common opinion 
is certainly ill-founded that the pious servants of God believed 
then in a Saviour who should come to suffer and redeem us 
with his blood, just as we believe in such a Saviour who has 
already come and suffered. If that had been the hope of the 
saints of the Old Testament, it is morally certain that John 
the Baptist, the greatest of the prophets, as Christ says, would 
also have looked at the matter from this point of view, which he 
did not; and with equal facility and certainty the disciples of 
our Lord, after three years of intimate fellowship with him, 
would have readily understood (as we are repeatedly told they 
did not) his frequent declarations that it was necessary for him 
to be put to death and after three days rise again. What those 
ancient worthies looked for was in substance what the New 
Testament teaches us that we also are to wait for at the coming 
of Christ, the second time, in "the day of redemption", for the 
salvation of his people (Acts 1: 6; Eph. 4: 30; Heb. 9: 28), and 
the saints in heaven wait for it more truly and earnestly than we 
do on earth. 1 Pet. 1:4, 5, 7, 13; 4: 13; Matt. 16: 27; Acts 
3:20, 21; Rom. 8:18—25; 1 Cor. 1:8, 9; 1 Thes. 1:9, 10. I 
repeat, therefore, that what Peter calls "the times of the restora- 
tion (or restitution) of all things", expresses better than any 



CHAPTER 4: 8—15 59 

other phrase, the hope of Abel — "restitution", "restoration"; the 
which we also wait for, but with a distinct hope (which for 
Abel was not distinct) of passing the intermediate time of 
death "with Christ, which is very far better" (Phil. 1: 21, 23), 
while he also waits, seated at God's right hand; — "from hence- 
forth expecting — waiting — till his enemies be made his foot- 
stool". Heb. 10: 13. "The hope of the Gospel" has been one 
and the same thing from the days of Abel till now; although 
we see it, or ought to see it, with greater clearness and with 
far greater abundance of "exceeding great and precious prom- 
ises." 2 Pet. 1: 4.] 

[Teanslatoe's Note 1. — On the Eschatology of the Old Testa- 
ment. In regard to the increasingly important matter of 
Eschatology, as it necessarily comes out in these Studies, it will 
promote a good understanding between the reader and the writer, 
to say at once that he has no novelties to propose or defend, but 
holds simply and sincerely to the fundamental principles of the 
Reformation theology. The Christian salvation, in all its gradual 
unfoldings, has been one and the same in all the ages of the pres- 
ent, past and future. Although, as the apostle says, "the way into 
the holiest of all was not yet made manifest while the first 
tabernacle was yet standing" (Heb. 9: 8) — that is, so long as the 
Jewish Dispensation was in force (Heb. 9: 8) ; the obscurity that 
in the conception of Old Testament saints rested on "the way," 
wrought no uncertainty in the divine procedure, and "the souls of 
believers were at their death made perfect in holiness, and did 
immediately pass into glory" then, just as they do now; — be- 
fore Christ's death, just the same as after it; the darkness that 
rested on the state of death, under the Old Testament, was not 
so much that of the state itself, or of "the way" itself, as it 
was the darkness of apprehension of the saints then living; dark, 
as it would be to us, if Christ by his death and resurrection had 
not "brought life and immortality to light through the gospel." 
2 Tim. 1: 10. The obscure and hard to understand is always 
dark to us. 

The proof of their immediate entrance into glory is, I think, 
not hard to find. No man who duly considers the case can be- 
lieve that He who requires of us faith in his divine promises, as 
the one great condition of salvation, would himself have so little 
confidence in his own purpose and performance, that he should 
deny to "Abraham his friend" and to the other Old Testament 
saints admittance into his immediate presence, until the price 
of their redemption had been actually paid on Calvary's Cross. 
This is in fact as absurd as it is unreasonable, in speaking of 



60 GENESIS 

the ever living Jehovah, "the high and holy One who inhabiteih 
eternity", to whom the past, the present and the future- — our 
past, present and future — are one and the same thing. To him 
necessarily, by the laws of his own nature and his (to us) in- 
comprehensible mode of being, Christ was, without a figure of 
speech, "the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world". 
Rev. 13: 8. The accepted sacrifice of Calvary was to him as 
present in the days of believing Abel, and its blood as efficacious, 
as it was ever going to be. So then, there was nothing for him to 
wait for, nor any reason why the martyred Abel should not at 
once have the benefit of it. "His place" was already prepared. 
"The dying thief" was with the disembodied human soul of 
Jesus "in Paradise," before that eventful evening's sun was set 
(Luke 23: 43); and according to 2 Cor. 12: 3, 4 and Rev. 2: 7, 
"paradise" is "heaven," if there be a heaven. According to the 
teachings of Christ himself, the God of Abraham, Isaac and 
Jacob "is not the God of the dead but of the living (Gr., not of 
dead men but of living ones); fob all live unto Him (though 
dead to us and to themselves as well), to whom our past and 
future are eternally present. Luke 20: 38. Their dim and 
doubtful apprehension of the "blessedness of the dead who die in 
the Lord" no more affected the reality of the blessed translation 
in their case, than do the distorted and erroneous views of 
godly Roman Catholics now send them to "Purgatory" rather 
than to Glory, when they die. Their dimness of vision had no 
more to do with it in the one case than it has in the other. 

But, on the other hand, let it not be forgotten, as so many do 
forget, that the holy dead, whether under the Old or the New 
Dispensation, are not receiving their kingdom, their reward and 
their crown, but rather waiting for them, "with Christ," lohile 
"he waits, till his foes be made his footstool." Heb. 10: 13. 
Dead men do not wear a crown of life; nor do any "reign in life 
with Jesus Christ," while yet "death reigns" over their mortal 
bodies. Rom. 5: 14. The Bible does not speak after that fashion. 
The holy dead wait for "the day of redemption" as truly, and 
no doubt far more earnestly in heaven, than we do here on 
earth. Paul no longer "groans within himself," but he is still 
"waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body." 
Rom. 8: 23. See also, and particularly, Heb. 11: 39, 40, where the 
apostle teaches that the numberless multitudes of the holy 
dead (vrs. 12, 13) "received not the promise; God having pro- 
vided some better thing for us [better far than the "heaven" 
of the departed], that they (the dead) apart from us (the liv- 
ing) should not be made perfect." 



CHAPTER 4: 8—15 61 

This is in strict accordance with Christ's own teaching: — 
"The Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father, with his 
mighty angels, and then (but not till then) shall he render to 
every one — the living and the dead, those who follow him and 
those who reject him — according to their deeds." Matt. 16: 27. 
"Thou shall be recompensed at the resurrection of the just" 
(Luke 14: 14) ; and the saints, whether in heaven or earth, have 
of course to wait for it till then; and no wonder, if Christ him- 
self is waiting on his Father's throne, for his kingdom, his 
throne and the day of his power and glory! Heb. 10: 13; Rev. 
3: 21; 2 Tim. 4: 1. The Judge of the living and the dead it is 
who teaches us that "tohen the Son of man shall come in his 
glory, and all his angels with him, then shall he sit upon the 
throne of his glory" and then shall he bestow "the kingdom" 
on the just, for whom it "was prepared from the foundation 
of the world." Matt. 25: 31, 34. And again, he teaches that it 
is "when, in the regeneration, the Son of man shall sit upon the 
throne of his glory," that all who have suffered the loss of any- 
thing for his name's sake "shall receive an hundred fold, and 
shall inherit eternal life" (Matt. 19:28, 29) :— "life" in Bible 
language, as well as in our own, is always a thing of bodily 
manifestation. Paul no less explicitly teaches that "we must all 
— the living and the dead alike, saints and sinners alike — appear 
(or 'be manifested') before the judgment-seat of Christ, that 
every one may receive the things done in the body, according 
to what he hath done, whether it be good or bad." And in that 
last "Revelation" of the things that must shortly come to pass, 
which he sent and signified unto his people by the hand of his 
servant John, we read that "ivhen the seventh angel sounded" 
(and therefore near to the consummation of all things) it is said 
that "the nations were angry, and thy wrath is come, and the 
time of the dead, that they should be judged, and that thou 
shouldst give their reward unto thy servants the prophets, and 
to the saints, and to them that fear thy name, both small and 
great; and shouldst destroy them that destroy the earth." Rev. 
11: 15 — 18. That does not imply that the holy dead lie in 
unconscious slumber and get no reward till then; for they do 
(Luke 16:25; 23:43; Phil. 1:21, 23); yet that state of dis- 
embodied life is, as Calvin says, an abnormal condition of be- 
ing, a temporary expedient, which "the infinite counsel of God 
has devised," to meet the special case of those who must needs 
die, before "the day of redemption" dawns. Institutes, Book 
III. ch. 25, Sec. 9. But it does imply that the resurrection unto 
the life everlasting (Dan. 12: 2) is a thousand times better, and 



62 GENESIS 

as far transcends the "blessedness of the dead who die in the 
Lord," as life itself surpasses death; and therefore the New 
Testament says little about it, and generally leaves it out of 
view.* 

Now therefore, as God's plan of the human redemption is one 
and the same from the beginning, and as "the gospel preached 
beforehand unto Abraham" (Gal. 3: 8) was identically the same 
gospel that is preached to us, so also I believe that from the 
days of holy Abel, the salvation of the disembodied souls of God's 
people was identically the same as it is now; in spite of the fact 
that "the way into the holiest of all was not then made manifest" 
to them, as it is now to us; but the faith of God's servants in 
those days was occupied with the final salvation, rather than 
with the shadowy and intermediate state of death; just as Peter 
says our own ought to oe perpetually occupied with "tlie salva- 
tion ready to oe revealed in the last time," and with the 
"praise, honor and glory" in which our faith is to issue at the 
appearing of Jesus Christ. 1 Pet. 1:5, 7. We are fully war- 
ranted, therefore, in tracing the faith and hope of that salvation, 
however faintly discovered, from the days of believing Abel 
down to the times of John the Baptist; — with no flights of fancy, 
be it understood, but according to what is written in the Scrip- 
ture of truth. See Job 19: 23—27; Ps. 16: 6—11; Isa. 26: 19—21. 

This is, in my view, the key that unlocks this mystery of the 
Old Testament Scriptures; and the gradual unfolding of this hope 
is one peculiarity of this volume, which in its Spanish form 
has delighted so many, both among the missionaries and their 
converts. The author is neither a pre-millenarian nor a post- 
millenarian, and will leave the reader in undisputed possession 
of his own preferences in this regard ;f but I think that he will 
find "a more excellent way," if he will habituate himself to 
leave the intermediate possibilities with God, who is well able 
to take care of them, and duly heed Peter's exhortation to his 

•About all that the New Testament teaches as to the state of the 
dead, both holy and unholy, will be found in Luke 16 : 22-25 ; 23 : 43, — 
the sum total of Christ's recorded personal teaching ; Acts 7 : 5G, 5S ; 2 
Cor. 5:1, 8 ; 12 : 4 ; Phil. 1 : 21, 23 ; Heb. 6 : 12 ; 11 : 39, 40 ; Jude vr. 
7 ; Rev. 14 : 13. 

tNeither Luther, Calvin, Knox, Samuel Rutherford, nor Richard Bax- 
ter found any place for "the Millennium" in their theology ; and I do 
not see why it should have any necessary place in ours. No fulfilled 
prophecy of the past was ever accomplished at the time or in the way 
the godliest of men expected ; of which John the Baptist is perhaps 
the most conspicuous example, — himself a prophet, the last, and in some 
respects the greatest of them all. Matt. 11 : 11. And if this has been 
an unvarying rule in the past, how can any one reasonably expect that 
it will not be so in the future as weU? 



CHAPTER 4: 16—18 63 

readers: "Gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and set your 
hope perfectly (R. V.) on the grace that is to be brought unto 
you at the revelation of Jesus Christ;" with which things also 
he says that the prophets were chiefly concerned, who prophesied 
of the grace that should come unto us; which things moreover he 
says that "the angels desire to look into." 1 Pet. 1: 10 — 13. See 
also Note 27, on "Sheol," or "Hades," in comment on ch. 37: 35.] 

4: 16 — 18. THE LINEAGE OF CAIN DOWN TO LAMECH. 

(Of uncertain date.) 

16 And Cain went out from the presence of Jehovah, and dwelt 
in the land of Nod,* on the east of Eden. 

17 And Cain knew his wife ; and she conceived, and bare Enoch : 
and he buildedf a city, and called the name of the city, after the name 
of his son, Enoch. 

18 And unto Enoch was born Irad : and Irad begat Mehujael ; 
and Mehujael begat Methushael : and Methusael begat Lamech. 

•That is, Wandering. [fif. S. V., was building.] 

Cain withdrew at once from the presence of Jehovah. That 
presence, which for the pious servants of God is the sum of all 
good (Ps. 73: 28; 16: 11; 36: 7—9), was now to him insupport- 
able. "The presence of Jehovah" would seem to mean in this 
place the vicinity and view of the cherubim, and of the altar 
that stood before the gate of paradise, where God revealed for the 
first time his mercy, and opened to sinning men a "door of hope." 
Of the "land of Nod" whither Cain withdrew, we know nothing 
more than its name (which signifies Wanderer or Wandering) , 
and that it was situated on the "east of Eden;" Cain withdraw- 
ing as far as he could from the presence of God and from inter- 
course with men. 

To suppose that Cain found a wife in the land of Nod, is an 
extravagance. He doubtless carried her with him: a good wife 
will bear with a wicked husband more than anybody else will. 
There is nothing to indicate that he did not take her with him, 
or that they did not take with them several older children. It 
is not to be supposed that Cain had no other sons except this 
Enoch, who was born to him in the land of Nod; who is not 
mentioned as his only son, but as that one from whom the city 
or fort which Cain was building at the time of his birth, took 
its name; and also with the object of presenting to us those 
1 notable descendants of his with whom the rest of the paragraph 
is occupied. 

Cain undoubtedly had, as Adam did, many sons and daughters. 

[Note 11. — On the wife of Cain. The question frequently 
asked as to who was the wife of Cain, has no interest or im- 
portance, aside from the allegation that the fugitive Cain met 



64 GENESIS 

with her in the land of Nod; and the consequent inference that 
there were in the days of Adam, and in a region remote from 
him, another race or races of men, of nature so identical with 
his own, that a woman of that stock became the wife of Cain. 
On the contrary, it is altogether probable that when he went 
into the land of Nod, Cain was fifty to eighty years of age; 
and it is to be supposed that at that age he had already a wife 
and children, that wife being his own sister; and who else was 
he to have for wife, if Eve was the "mother of all the living?" 
Ch. 3: 20. To us there is something repugnant in the idea of 
such a union; but in the beginning of the race it was not so. 
In Egypt, where there was no lack of women, it was the usage 
of the Pharaohs, the kings of the country, and still later of 
the Ptolemies, for the king to marry his own sister. And 
Abraham said without repugnance of Sarah: "Indeed she is 
my sister, the daughter of my father, but not the daughter of 
my mother; and she became my wife." Ch. 20: 12. There is 
nothing, therefore, strange, or in itself repugnant, in the fact 
that the sons and daughters of Adam and Eve should have mar- 
ried each other, for the lack of others with whom to marry.] 

When therefore a son was born to Cain in the land of Nod 
(who without being his only son, is the only one of whom we 
have any notice), he called him Enoch; and because he was 
building at the time "a city," he called his city after the name 
of his son, Enoch. This does not mean to say that Cain had 
around him so many people that it was necessary to build a 
city to accommodate them; but, on the contrary, that such was 
the dread which took possession of his guilty soul, after killing 
his brother, that not even when he had withdrawn as far as 
possible from the society of men, did he regard himself as se- 
cure; and so he at once set about to build a stockade, or palisade, 
for his defense. "City" (Span, "ciudad") in its ancient use 
and signification was a fortified place, as still is seen in the word 
ciudadela (= fortress); or in English, compare city and citadel. 
It is to be believed also, that when Cain withdrew from paradise 
and from the society of men, the wild beasts would be a per- 
petual menace to him, by day and by night; and his "stockade" 
would perhaps serve him principally as a defense against them. 

It is important to observe here the Hebrew usage of tracing 
descent down to a given point without making any account of 
the collateral lines. Cain had many children, but only Enoch 
is mentioned. In this genealogical table there are five generations 
of Cain, but we have only one individual in each generation, un- 
til we come to Lamech (Enoch, Irad, Mehujael, Mathushael, 



CHAPTER 4: 19—24 65 

Lamecli), — the writer's objective point, at which the list stops; a 
notable man of whom Moses had something important to relate. 

4: 19 — 24. lamech. polygamy, origin of the aets. poetey. 
(Of uncertain date; perhaps 3500 b. c.) 

19 And Lamech took unto him two wives : the name of the one 
was Adah, and the name of the other Zillah. 

20 And Adah bare Jabal : he was the father of such as dwell in 
tents and have cattle. 

21 And his brother's name was Jubal : he was the father of all 
such as handle the harp and pipe. 

22 And Zillah, she also bare Tubal-cain, the forger of every cut- 
ting instrument of brass* and iron : and the sister of Tubal-cain was 
Naamah. 

23 And Lamech said unto his wives : 
Adah and Zillah, hear my voice : 

Ye wives of Lamech, hearken unto my speech : 
For I have slain a man for wounding me, 
And a young man for bruising me : 

24 If Cain shall be avenged sevenfold, 
Truly Lamech seventy and sevenfold. 

*Or J copper. 

Lamech, the great grandson of the grandson of Cain, began 
the practice of polygamy by taking two wives. Wherever polyg- 
amy exists, the more powerful and influential men taking 
for themselves a plurality of wives, many men must necessarily 
have to go without any. Paul says, by the Holy Spirit: "To 
avoid fornications, let every man have his own wife and every 
woman her own husband." 1 Cor: 7: 2. This was undoubtedly 
the purpose of God in . creating only one woman for only one 
man; as Jesus explains the case in opposition of the Judaic usage 
of putting away one wife to take another, in Mat. 19: 4 — 6: — 
Only one woman for one man only. The prophet Malachi (ch. 
2: 15), who saw the thing at its worst, speaks to the same 
effect: "And did he not make one, although he had the residue 
of the spirit (or vital breath)?" One of each sex did God make, 
and these two he made "one flesh," although he had a super- 
abundance of vital breath to make many women for only one 
man.f And this continues still his purpose, as it is seen in that 
particular providence, which in all ages and in all countries, 

fPolygamy, so common in all Oriental countries, both in ancient and 
modern times, and among pagan peoples generally, was gradually ex- 
tinguished among the Hebrews by the operation of the Mosaic law and 
subsequent divine revelations, and seems to have been completely super- 
seded in the days of Christ by the more convenient system of putting away 
one wife to take another. It is never once mentioned or referred to in 
the New Testament. Among the Greeks and Romans (and European 
peoples generally), polygamy seems never to have existed; but wives were 
put away, or got rid of, for very trifling causes, or for none ; just as 
in China or Japan today. — Tr. 



66 GENESIS 

ordains, and always has ordained, that the births of the two 
sexes be, on an average, in equal number, one half male and 
one half female; the males having a certain excess, since a 
larger number of them die in wars and by accidents, in which 
men suffer more than women. Most admirable providence, where 
we do as it were see the very hand of God interposed! for 
as there are families in which all are born males, and 
families in which all are born females, this persistent equality 
of the sexes in the aggregate, God alone is able to maintain. 
And universal observation proves that the human species most 
rapidly increases where that primordial disposition of Heaven is 
best regarded — only one man for one woman only, and only one 
woman for one man only. 

The scarcity of women, and not the good morals of the men, 
prevented, for six generations, the usage of having a plurality 
of wives. But at last Lamech, of the family of Cain, introduced 
it, when he took two wives, Adah and Zillah; beautiful women, 
it is to be supposed from their names; the former meaning 
"Beauty," and the latter, "Shade" — something delicious in a 
warm country. Nor is it to be supposed in this case that Adah 
had no more than two sons, nor Zillah more than one. The 
sacred writer omits all the other children in order to fix at- 
tention on these three, famous in their day, as persons with 
whom wealth and the mechanical and fine arts had their origin. 
Jabal was the first who was a keeper of cattle on a large scale; 
which is the real signification of "father of such as dwell in 
tents and have cattle" — something very different from the humble 
office of Abel. His brother Jubal, another son of Adah, was the 
"father of all such as handle the harp and the pipe;" which, 
in Hebrew, means that he was the originator of instrumental 
music and a teacher of it. Comp. 2 Chron. 2: 13; 4: 16, there 
"my father," and "his father" mean architect or master "builder. 

The son of Zillah — the only one who is mentioned — was Tubal- 
cain, more famous still, a worker in iron and in copper (or 
brass, which is the same in Hebrew), and who was the in- 
ventor of all kinds of cutting instruments, made of these metals.* 
So that the mechanical and fine arts, and the possession of 
material riches began among the Cainites; while the descendants 
of the pious Seth and the humble Enosh, who were "called by 
the name of Jehovah," remained in a mediocrity of temporal 
blessings, maintaining the simple customs of their forefathers. 

•As cutting instruments were not made of brass, copper is what Is 
Intended here. The ancient Egyptians used an alloy of copper (of which 
the composition has been lost), said by some to be superior even to the 
best of our steel, especially for working in stone. — Tr. 



CHAPTER 4: 25, 26 67 

The sister of Tubal-cain would seem from this mention to 
have been a celebrated woman in her day, of whom there re- 
mains to us only the memory of her name — Naamah (—Sweet- 
ness). So pass away the glories of this world! 

Vrs. 23, 24, besides the fact which they relate, are interesting 
on account of their poetry — the beginning of the art; which also, 
like all ancient poetry was a song; and the musical instruments 
of his son Tubal would serve him as accompaniment. And this 
first song celebrated a murder, which the singer had committed, 
perhaps with one of the keen edged instruments which another 
of his sons, Tubal-cain, had made; and in point of arrogance 
and cold-blooded insensibility, it leaves far behind the crime of 
Cain. The words may be understood either as a bravado, to 
celebrate his prowess, or, as given in the text, as implying that 
he committed it in revenge for some injury done to his own 
person. And the impious wretch claims a divine protection ten 
times more sure than that which God had granted to Cain in 
order not to paralyze the movement of population in the world, 
at a time when it was almost uninhabited. A sad promise does 
this Lamech give of the times of violence that were fast coming 
upon the earth. If the generations of Cain corresponded with 
those of Seth in ch. 5 (which is not to be supposed, as these 
were not genealogies of first-born sons, but of the sons who came 
in the line of the promise) Tubal-cain would have been a contem- 
porary of holy Enoch, "the seventh from Adam" (Jude, verse 21), 
in whose days the impiety of the earth was reaching its culminat- 
ing point. The cutting instruments of copper and iron which 
Tubal-cain invented, were a great blessing for men in the 
rude conflict which they then sustained with the elements and 
the wild beasts (which must have been exceedingly numerous 
and very defiant in those days), and also to clear the land, 
and aid in the cultivation of the soil; but in malevolent hands 
they inaugurated that epoch "of violence of which the earth 
was full" in the days of Noah. It is to be noted that "the age 
of stone," of which geologists say so much in our day, and 
often so erroneously, was, according to Moses, the condition of 
the world from the fall of Adam till Tubal-cain; and with him 
began "the age of iron." It is also to be noted that in vr. 22, 
instruments of copper seem to take precedence of those of iron. 

4: 25, 26. seth, heir of the promise, is given in the place of 
abel, till then vacant. (3874 b. c.) 

25 And Adam knew his wife again ; and she bare a son, and 
called his name Seth : For, said she, God hath appointed me an- 
other seed instead of Abel ; for Cain slew him. 



68 GENESIS 

2G And to Seth, to liim also there was born a son ; and he called 
his name Enosh. Then began men to call upon the name of Je- 
hovah.* 

[*Mod. Span. Ver., to call themselves by the name of Jehovah." Ch. 
6 : 2 ; 2 Chron. 7 : 14 ; Isa. 43 : 7 ; 44 : 5 ; 63 : 19 ; Dan. 9 : 19 ; Eph. 3 : 15, 
1G ; Acts 11 : 26.] 

These events took place during 130 years. Ch. 5; 3. It is to be 
believed that "Abel the just," the first «f the heroes of faith 
(Heb. 11: 4), would also have been the first in the line of the prom- 
ise of redemption, had not the fratricidal hand of Cain quenched 
this "light of the world" (Matt. 5: 13, 14); and the other sons 
and daughters of Adam, it seems, walked in corruption and dark- 
ness, following the godless example of Cain; for which reason 
they are conveniently called Cainites, even though they were not 
personally his descendants. Adam and Eve saw with bitterness 
of soul the immediate and terrible results of their apostasy from 
God; and, if in fact they themselves were the possessors of 
genuine evangelical repentance, so as to truly turn to God, un- 
doubtedly they continually cried to him in the calamitous times, 
that so early had come to supplant the delightful days of Eden; 
as seems to be indicated in vrs. 25 and 26. Eve, with the heart 
of a mother, was still lamenting the loss of the pure and gentle 
Abel, after the lapse of many years, and she accepted the birth 
of Seth as a special gift of God, besought, perhaps, from Jehovah 
with anxious desire; as Samuel was in after days. 1 Sam. 1: 27. 
She therefore named him Seth (= Substitution) saying: "Be- 
cause God has given me another seed instead of Abel whom 
Cain slew." As it is undoubtedly true that Eve had other sons, 
younger than Abel (and if Abel was as much as fifty or sixty 
years old at the time of his death, many other sons), her words 
"another seed instead of Abel," would seem to manifest clearly 
that she was looking to the promise of "the Seed of the Woman," 
frustrated by the death of Abel, but which at last lived again 
with the birth of Seth. Of Cain and his impious race, and of 
his imitators, it is clear that she had no longer any hope what- 
ever. Seen in this light, two classes of persons, and even two 
distinct races, rise conspicuously into view from the beginning 
of the history of mankind, — a distinction which Paul traces in 
the family of Abraham himself, "between him that was born 
after the flesh" and "him that was born through promise" (Gal. 
4: 23); and also in the family of Isaac, between "the children 
of the flesh" and the "children of the promise." Rom. 9: 8. 
With rare delight Eve received Seth as a "child of the promise" 
— a "substitute for Abel, whom Cain slew." 

The name of "Enosh," the son of Seth, is significant, meaning 



CHAPTER 4: 25, 26 69 

"feeble man," "mortal," "weakly," etc.; a name which may have 
had something to do with him personally; or according to 
others, with the character of the race, which had now very 
clearly revealed itself; just as David composed a Psalm "on the 
prevailing sickness" ("upon Mahalath"), in order to set forth 
the general impiety of men. See Alexander on Ps. 53, title. 
We know nothing of his individual character, which some Jewish 
rabbis hold in ill-esteem, he being, as they say, the author or 
promoter of idolatry — of which nothing is said in the text; and 
it seems to me probable that material idolatry began after the 
deluge and not before; for those were times of impiety, of 
sensuality and of violence, of oppression and bloodshed, rather 
than of idolatry. Enosh was not the only son of Seth, nor neces- 
sarily the first-born son, but he came in line of the promise — 
the line of the descent of the covenant. In this history "the 
covenant" is mentioned first in the case of Noah (Gen. 6: 18); 
but the manner in which it is mentioned takes for granted its 
previous existence; and since "the covenant" is equivalent to 
"the promise," which likewise existed without being called by 
that name, I shall continue to use the two terms in this equiva- 
lent sense. In no part of this book is anything said about the 
covenant made with Adam; but, nevertheless it existed, accord- 
ing to the testimony of the prophet Hosea, who speaks of it as 
a matter well known in his day, "that Adam transgressed the 
covenant." Hos. 6: 7, R. V. And although neither covenant nor 
promise of redemption is mentioned after the fall, everybody con- 
fesses the existence of the latter, and there is no less reason to 
confess the former, in the light of the chapters which treat of 
Abraham, and thenceforward; and also in the light of the con- 
trast which Paul institutes between Adam and Christ, in Rom. 5: 
12 — 19, and that, without mention of either covenant or promise. 
We incline to the belief also that Enosh was one of those 
"poor in spirit (and pure in heart) of whom is the kingdom of 
God," because of the circumstance mentioned in the text, that 
in his days began the usage of men's "calling themselves by the 
name of Jehovah" (Modern Span. Version). This phrase, it is 
true, is translated in different ways. ■ Those who blacken the 
name and character of Enosh, understand it that in those days 
men began to profane the name of Jehovah with idolatrous prac- 
tices: — a sense which it is hard to extract from the words. 
Others prefer to say: "Then men began to call upon the name 
of Jehovah." While this is a very ordinary sense of the Hebrew 
words, it is not easy to see its appropriateness here. Since prayer 



70 GENESIS 

is at least as old as sacrifice; so that those who contend for this 
sense qualify it to mean in public assemblies. Others still will 
have it mean "to proclaim the name of Jehovah," — in public 
assemblies also. But the Modern Spanish Version is in full 
accord with the Hebrew text; and it gives, as does the old 
Valera Version, the most satisfactory sense. Consult the refer- 
ences. It is given also, in the margin of our English Bible, as 
an alternative rendering: "Then began men to call themselves 
(or to be called) by the name of Jehovah." We have already 
seen that before the birth of Enosh there were found two dis- 
tinct classes of people, and even two different races of men, in 
the world, conveniently named Cainites and Sethites; and here 
we are informed that in the days of Enosh the race of the 
pious Seth (as we understand it) began to call themselves (or 
to be called) by a characteristic name; taking for their distinc- 
tive badge the venerable name of Jehovah; already cast aside 
and despised by the impious Cainites; as also by the worldly and 
wicked of today. This sense also gives the most satisfactory ex- 
planation of the distinction made in ch. 6:2 between the "sons 
of God" and the "daughters of men." In Isa. 43: 7; 44: 5; 48: 1; 
65: 1, we have just this use of the words. And Daniel beseeches 
God that he will hasten to have mercy upon them, because "thy 
city and thy people are called by thy name." Dan. 9: 19. Very 
frequent is this usage in the Old Testament; and in the New we 
find the same thing, where the disciples of Christ were called by 
his name, "Christians." Acts 11: 26. 

Most interesting and important it is to keep always present in 
our minds that, from the beginning of the history of human re- 
demption, there has existed this distinction between the good 
and the evil (in a spiritual sense), between saints and sinners, 
between those that fear God and those who make no account of 
him. Mai. 3: 18. To blot out the distinction, then, is to sin 
grievously against Him who says, "I will put enmity be- 
tween thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed." 
Ch. 3: 15. 

CHAPTER V. 

VES. 1 — 20. THE DESCENDANTS OF ADAM, IN THE TIME OF THE 

promise, down to enoch. (Prom 4004 until 2582 b. c.) 

1 This is the book of the generations of Adam. In the day that 
God created man, in the likeness of God made he him ; 

2 male and female created he them, and blessed them, and called 
their name Adam, in the day when they were created. 

3 And Adam lived a hundred and thirty years, and begat a son 
in his own likeness, after his image ; and called his name Seth : 



CHAPTER 5: 1—20 71 

4 and the days of Adam after he begat Seth were eight hundred 
years : and he begat sons and daughters. 

5 And all the days that Adam lived were nine hundred and thirty 
years : and he died. 

6 And Seth lived a hundred and five years, and begat Enosh : 

7 and Seth lived after he begat Enosh eight hundred and seven 
years, and begat sons and daughters : 

8 and all the days of Seth were nine hundred and twelve years: 
and he died. 

9 And Enosh lived ninety years, and begat Kenan : 

10 and Enosh lived after he begat Kenan eight hundred and fifteen 
years, and begat sons and daughters : 

11 and all the days of Enosh were nine hundred and five years : 
and he died. 

12 And Kenan lived seventy years, and begat Mahalalel : 

13 and Kenan lived after he begat Mahalalel eight hundred and 
forty years, and begat sons and daughters : 

14 and all the days of Kenan were nine hundred and ten years : 
and he died. 

15 And Mahalalel lived sixty and five years, and begat Jared : 

16 and Mahalalel lived after he begat Jared eight hundred and 
thirty years, and begat sons and daughters : 

17 and all the days of Mahalalel were eight hundred ninety and 
five years : and he died. 

18 And Jared lived a hundred sixty and two years, and begat 
Enoch : 

19 and Jared lived after he begat Enoch eight hundred years, and 
begat sons and daughters : 

20 and all the days of Jared were nine hundred sixty and two 
years : and he died. 

Chapter 5 is occupied with a list, or genealogical table of the 
descendants of Adam, in the line of the promise — the line of 
Christ (Luke 3: 36 — 38) — the promised Seed of the Woman, 
Saviour of his people, and Liberator of the world, down to Noah, 
an eminent type of him. It is to be noted in vr. 2 that "Adam" 
was the name of the race, and so it is used very often, par- 
ticularly in the book of Ecclesiastes (ch. 1: 3; 3: 11 — 22), and not 
alone of the head and father of it. 

It is important to fix attention upon the omission of two 
well known names, Cain and Abel, and of several unknown per- 
sons who come before and after that of Seth. In this list no 
account is made of them, exclusive attention being given to that 
son who came in the line of the promise of redemption. By 
the failure to notice this circumstance, many have fallen into 
the error of believing that the antediluvians either arrived very 
late at their maturity, or for unknown causes married at a very 
advanced age; for neither of which inferences does there exist 
a vestige of proof. Adam did not arrive late at his maturity, 
nor did he marry late; but he had Seth when 130 years of age; 
and there does not exist any more reason for saying so with 
regard to Seth and the other antediluvians (and notably of 
Noah, see vr. 32), than there is in the case of Adam and Noah. 



72 GENESIS 

In vr. 1, we are reminded of what is said in ch. 1: 26, 27, that 
Adam and Eve were created in the likeness and image of God. 
But they had "transgressed the covenant" (Hos. 6:7); they 
were now fallen beings, mortal, sinners; and into that likeness 
we are told in vr. 3 that at 130 years of age Adam "begat a 
son in his own likeness, and after his image." Seth, then, was 
born, in the new and fallen image and likeness of his father; 
and such have all his posterity been born; fallen, mortal, sin- 
ners. The same thing was true of Cain and Abel; but the sacred 
writer reserved the declaration for this place, as more agreeable 
to his design, on treating formally of the descendants of Adam 
in the line of the promise. 

The sum total of the years of Adam was 930 years; of Seth, 
912; of Enosh, 905, 84 of which he passed contemporaneously with 
Noah, according to the Hebrew chronology. The sum total 
of Methuselah's, the oldest of men, was 969, he dying in the 
600th year of Noah, the year of the flood, — according to the 
common chronology; in which case his longevity was a doubtful 
blessing. Lamech, the father of Noah, lived 777 years, and 
"died before his time," it was said in his day; but it was five 
years before Noah entered the ark. 

[Note 12. — On Biblical Chronology. We say "according to the 
common chronology," which is that of Ussher, founded on the 
Hebrew text. But the Samaritan text (of the five books of 
Moses, the only ones which the Samaritans admitted), contains 
some very remarkable variations from the Hebrew text; and the 
Greek translation, called that of "the LXX," and executed be- 
tween the year 280 and 150 B. C, followed in general by the 
Jewish historian Josephus, has the Hebrew chronology com- 
pletely altered in this chapter, with the exception of Jared and 
Noah. The alteration consists in adding 100 years to the age at 
which each one had the son mentioned, and taking away the 
same number from the years that he lived afterwards. It seems 
to me that all this was done with a deliberate purpose of remov- 
ing some grave difficulties which are found in the Hebrew text; 
as the reader will have already noticed in the case of Methuselah 
and Lamech. By adding to these, 100 years before the birth 
of the first son mentioned in the list, and taking away 100 years 
afterwards, Methuselah would come to die 100 years before the 
flood and Lamech 105. The object of adding and taking away 
100 years in the case of Adam (making it so that he was 230 
years old when Seth was born), seems to have been that of ob- 
serving a certain ratio of equality between Adam and the rest; 
making it appear, perhaps, that he also was one hundred years 



CHAPTER 5: 1—20 73 

old before he had his first son, Cain, and 230 when Seth was 
horn, preserving the 130 years of the Hebrew text as interposed 
between the two. In the case of Jared and of Noah, the Hebrew 
text already made the one to be 162 and the other 500 when the 
first son mentioned was born; and there was no cause to add 
anything more in their case. But whatever may have been 
the object of making them, these discrepancies exist not only 
here, but in the corresponding list in ch. 11: 11 — 26, where there 
seems to have existed the analogous difficulty of believing that 
the Hebrew text did not grant sufficient time between the deluge 
and the calling of Abraham, but only 427 years. Since, then, 
"the LXX interpreters" were Egyptian Jews and perfectly cog- 
nizant of the long periods claimed for the twenty-six or more 
dynasties of the kings of that country, they not only added 586 
to the 1656 years which the Hebrew text gives before the deluge 
(making that period 2242 years instead of 1656), but they added 
100 years again to the 35 years at which Arphaxad had his 
first mentioned son, and insert between Arphaxad and Selah, 
the name of Cainan with 130 years (which is only given in the 
LXX and in the Greek of Luke 3: 37, which cites it from the 
LXX), and they go on adding uniformly 100 years to the given 
age of Selah, of Heber, of Peleg, of Reu, of Serug; and 150 to. 
that of Nahor, making out that instead of 29 he was 179 years old 
when Terah was born. As Terah was 130 years old when 
Abraham was born (see comment on verse 26), nothing is 
added in his case. In this way, and showing so manifestly the 
purpose of gaining time, they make it appear that, instead of 
there being 427 years between the deluge and the calling of 
Abraham, at 75 years of age, there were 1307 — a difference of 
887 years. Joining together the two periods, we have, according 
to the Hebrew text 2083 years between the creation of Adam 
and the calling of Abraham, and 3549 according to the LXX; a 
difference of 1466 years. 

Chronology is always and of itself a very difficult matter; and 
all the more, because the ancients paid very little regard to it, 
having no common and determined epoch from which to compute 
it; the classical authors were even more careless in this regard 
than the sacred writers. We moderns, on the contrary, lay great 
stress on chronology, and especially on the correct temporal se- 
quence of events, to which the ancients ordinarily paid very lit- 
tle attention. Chronology is almost a modern science. It is 
therefore unreasonable to complain that the Bible does not con- 
form in this to our modern usage. What comes to increase the 
difficulties of biblical chronology is the circumstance that in 



74 GENESIS 

the ancient Hebrew manuscripts the exact notation and preserva- 
tion of numbers was almost an impossibility, these being indi- 
cated by letters of the alphabet, and by combinations .of these 
letters; the tens and hundreds being varied by means of par- 
ticular accents which were added to the letters. 

The effect, therefore, of these variations of the Greek text 
and of the Samaritan Pentateuch, and of the different systems of 
chronology founded on them, has made it impossible to deter- 
mine with any degree of precision the age of the world from 
the creation of Adam to the present time. The principal diffi- 
culty rests upon the period before the calling of Abraham. From 
then to the present (excepting the time of the sojourn of the 
people of Israel in Egypt), they are few, and the difficulties of 
very little importance; and these are due almost exclusively to 
errors of transcription. 

With this explanation, we shall govern ourselves ordinarily 
by the common chronology, not as being accurate, for it is often 
confessedly uncertain (though it is sufficiently correct for all 
practical uses), and to distinguish clearly between the different 
epochs in the current of the history, and the temporal relations 
that exist between them. Nevertheless some dates in our Bibles 
are so hazardous, or in my judgment so unfounded, that I pur- 
posely mark them in the heading of the paragraphs as of "uncer- 
tain date." In other cases I give the date with an interroga- 
tion point, in order to indicate how uncertain it is. But with 
regard to the numbers given in the text of the Bible itself, it is 
in my opinion the only safe rule to attend always to the Hebrew 
text — the inspired word of God, numbers and all — except in the 
few cases where there is good reason to suspect there is some 
error of the copyist.] 

5: 21 — 24. ENOCH, the saint who never experienced death. 
(Prom 3382 to 3107 b. c.) 

21 And Enoch lived sixty and five years, and begat Methuselah : 

22 and Enoch walked with God after he begat Methuselah three 
hundred years, and begat sons and daughters : 

23 and all the days of Enoch were three hundred sixty and five 
years : 

24 and Enoch walked with God : and he was not ; for God took 
him. 

Of this great man ("the seventh counting from Adam"), the 
father of Methuselah, we know very little, outside of the brief 
notice we have here. Times of impiety, of sensuality and of 
violence were those in which he lived, and as they could not 
overcome him, they impelled and even obliged him to seek 
closer communion with his God. Jude in his epistle cites the 



CHAPTER 5: 21—24 75 

following prophecy of Enoch, which, whether it be taken from 
the (apochryphal) "Book of Enoch" or whether it be that both 
of these took it from the oral tradition of the Jews (as in the 
case of Paul, who gives from Jewish tradition the names of the 
two principal opponents of Moses, Jannes and Jambres, at the 
court of Pharaoh, 2 Tim. 3:8), the Spirit of inspiration guar- 
antees its accuracy; and in truth every line of its energetic ut- 
terances bears on its face the marks of authenticity: "And to 
these also Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied saying; 
Behold the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his holy ones, 
to execute judgment upon all, and to convict all the ungodly 
of all their works of ungodliness, which they have ungodly 
committed, and of all the hard speeches which ungodly sinners 
have spoken against him." Jude vrs. 14, 15. He says, that 
Enoch prophesied in this manner not only to the impious of 
his day but to the impious of all ages, as a class of persons 
found in apostolic times, who are found today, and who will 
perhaps abound still more in the last days, when the Advent 
of the Lord and the Day of Judgment are drawing nigh. See 
Jude vrs. 18 — 25. It is a prophesy of the last Judgment, which 
the prophet foresaw, and he paints it in most vivid colors; and 
nevertheless the judgment which was hastening on was the 
deluge of waters, rather than that second deluge, of fire, of 
which the former was a type. 2 Pet. 3: 6 — 10. This prophecy 
of Enoch is of the greater interest, because of the light it 
sheds on the prophecies of double fulfilment; like that of Jesus 
with regard to the destruction of Jerusalem and of the end of 
the Age; in which the judgment of the Jewish Church and 
State is inextricably involved with the final judgment of the 
world; and also like many others of the prophecies. Enoch saw 
the judgment of God coming upon the world of the ungodly, 
but it was not given to him to distinguish between the first and 
the last judgment. This is very easy to comprehend if we sup- 
pose that it, like many other prophecies, was given to the prophet 
in vision; and that he saw (as Paul says in Romans 1: 16) "the 
wrath of God revealed from heaven against every form of im- 
piety and unrighteousness of men," which wrath will culminate 
in that coming day of wrath and retribution for the enemies of 
God, which is likewise the day of glory and salvation for his 
people. Rom. 2: 5—16; 2 Thes. 1: 5—10. We suppose that like 
Isaiah (ch. 1: 1), he saw it all in vision, down to "the time of the 
end," and described what he saw, without being able to dis- 
tinguish the less from the greater, nor the nearer from the more 
remote; it was a picture of coming judgments, including the 



76 GENESIS 

most remote and the last; but, as has been happily said, prophecy 
(like all pictures made before the days of Raphael) was like a 
picture without perspective. The same thing is true with re- 
gard to the ancient prophecies of the Advent of Christ. The 
prophets saw it in bulk, in vision perhaps (see Isa. 1:1; 2: 1; 
John 12: 41; 8: 56), with all its train of consequences; but it 
was not given them to distinguish between the first and the 
second Advent. The Jews did not wish, nor do they now wish, 
to allow of any other advent but the last; while, on the con- 
trary, many Christians are fully content with the first advent, 
and make little or no account of the second, the Coming of the 
Messiah in Glory and Majesty. 

This great saint "walked with God," keeping his way and 
maintaining communion with him in times of extreme wicked- 
ness, atrocious sensuality and impious atheism; and in recom- 
pense of his fidelity, and in order to animate the hope and 
fortify the faith in the invisible of the few who in that day 
strove to live holy, and also for the purpose in clearing up for 
all the future ages the form and the security of the final redemp- 
tion, "Enoch was translated that he should not see death; and 
he was not found, because God had translated him; for before 
his translation he had witness borne to him that he pleased 
God." Heb. 11: 5. It has been aptly said that "to the ante- 
diluvians, Enoch's translation afforded the clearest evidence of 
immortality, as that of Elijah did to those of his day, and the 
resurrection of Christ does to us." In what form this precious 
testimony was given to him, we do not know; or in what way 
his translation was effected, giving thus testimony upon testi- 
mony, that God was pleased with him, we do not know; but 
doubtless the godly and the ungodly alike had trustworthy notice 
of it; and this would serve as divine testimony for both classes. 

"We ought not to pass without notice vr. 22: "And Enoch 
walked with God after he had begotten Methuselah 300 years, 
and begat sons and daughters" It seems as if, in their very 
form, the words were intended to reprove the error of Roman- 
ists, and of others like them, who allege that the state of mar- 
riage is less holy than that of celibacy, — and this in spite of the 
notorious immoralities of that unnatural and unscriptural system, 
as thoroughly tested in papal lands. The sum total of the days of 
Enoch was 365 years; so that for those times his life was short. 

5: 25 — 27. methtjselah, the oldest of men. (From 3317 to 

2448 b. c.) 

25 And Methuselah lived a hundred eighty and seven years, and 
begat Lamech : 



CHAPTER 5: 25—27 77 

26 and Methusaleh lived after he begat Lamech seven hundred 
eighty and two years, and begat sons and daughters : 

27 and all the days of Methuselah were nine hundred sixty and 
nine years : and he died. 

If we accept the common chronology, Methuselah died in the 
very year of the deluge; but whether he died in his bed, or was 
drowned in the waters, the conclusion would seem to be inevitable 
that he was one of those "forgetters of God" whose sins brought 
on the world the waters of that divine judgment. See ch. 6: 18; 
7:1. It cannot in any case be affirmed of him, as it was of 
Abraham, that "he died in a good old age, an old man and full 
of days." Ch. 25: 8. 

[Note 13. — On the longevity of the antediluvian patriarchs. It 
is asked with frequency if the many years of the antediluvians 
were years of twelve months, and if these men really attained to 
almost a thousand of our years. If we duly consider the case, 
and look at it from the proper point of view, the supposed diffi- 
culty will, I think, vanish of itself. The physical constitution of 
Adam and Eve was adapted to a life without end. They were 
created provisionally immortal, and a great part of this extraor- 
dinary vitality remained to them and to their posterity, even 
after their fall: this was one of the most prolific causes of the 
frightful corruption of those times. The diminution of human 
life was very rapid after the flood until the times of Abraham, 
and from that to the days of Moses; when it seems that 70 or 
80 years came to be the ordinary limit of human life, as happens 
in our own days. See Ps. 90: 10. 

Besides the Bible, all the nations of antiquity have had their 
traditions as to the great age to which human life attained in 
times long passed. Nor does there exist in nature any reason 
whatever why the vital force should be exhausted in 70 or 80 
years, any more than in 700 or 800. The wisest and most skilful 
scientist can only say, without giving any reason, that we ob- 
serve that ordinarily it happens so. But there are persons of 
less vital force who exhaust it in 20, 30, or 40 years; and others 
who possess it in such abundance that, even in our day, their 
life is prolonged to 130, and even to 150 years. In which we clearly 
see that by increasing sufficiently human vitality you obtain 
any age you please. But so terrible were the moral consequences 
of this extraordinary vitality, and consequent longevity, in our 
race of sinners before the flood, that God in mercy has cut short 
the term of human life from then till now.* 

*Our physical life depends on the constant operation of the two laws 
of waste and supply. For 20 years the supply so far exceeds the waste, 
that the body develops and grows ; from 20 to 50, or even to 60, the two 



78 GENESIS 

Nevertheless, the advanced age to which men lived in those 
primitive times was very important, not only for the rapid 
population of the world, but for the preservation and propaga- 
tion of useful knowledge, historical, mechanical, intellectual 
and religious. According to the common chronology, Adam 
died 726 years before the deluge, — 126 years before Noah was 
born. Seth died 614 years before the deluge; Enosh 516, and 
for the space of 84 years was a contemporary of Noah. Adam 
for the space of 243 years was a contemporary of Methuselah, 
who for 600 years was contemporary with Noah; and after the 
deluge, Noah lived on for 350 years, reaching to the 56th year of 
the life of Terah, the father of Abraham. So it was that historical 
knowledge passed with the greatest facility and security from 
parents to their children, in those times when the art of writ- 
ing was perhaps unknown, and the stores of useful knowledge 
were carefully guarded in the memories of man: — Adam, Me- 
thuselah, Noah, Terah, Abraham. See Note 6, on Patriarchal 
Traditions, page 26.] 

5: 28 — 32. lamech, noah (=eest) — a type of "jesus, who de- 
livers US FROM THE WRATH TO COME." 1 TheS. 1: 10. 

(Prom 3130 to 2248 b. c.) 

28 And Lamech lived a hundred eighty and two years, and begat 
a son : 

29 and he called his name Noah, saying, This same shall comfort 
us in our work and in the toil of our hands, which cometh because of 
the ground which Jehovah hath cursed. 

30 And Lamech lived after he begat Noah five hundred ninety and 
five years, and begat sons and daughters : 

31 and all the days of Lamech were seven hundred seventy and 
seven years : and he died. 

32 And Noah was five hundred years old : and Noah begat Shem, 
Ham, and Japheth. 

Lamech, the father of Noah, lived after the latter was born 
595 years, dying five years before the flood; and as "Noah was 
600 years old when the deluge of waters came upon the earth" 
(ch. 7: 6), it follows seemingly of necessary consequence, that 
when, a hundred years before the deluge, or say one hundred and 
twenty (ch. 6:3), "Noah (alone) found grace in the eyes of 
Jehovah," vr. 18, and when with him (alone) God established 
his covenant, and ordained that he and his sons and his wife and 
are so nearly in equilibrium that the healthy subject feels no sensible 
decline of bodily vigor ; from 50 or 60 to 70 or 80, the toaste exceeds the 
supply, and the body gradually declines till life goes out in death. But 
we can conceive of the equilibrium of waste and supply being maintained 
for hundreds of years as readily as for scores : arid thus it was in the 
days before the Flood. It was as simple a matter then as now ; there is 
nothing unnatural or unreasonable about it. — Tr. 



CHAPTER 5: 28—32 79 

the wives of his sons with him — these eight and no more — 
should enter into the ark which he commanded him to make; 
and when, the ark being finished, God commanded him to enter, 
saying: "Because thee (only) have I found righteous in this 
generation" (ch. 7: 1), it seems, I repeat, to be the inevitable 
conclusion that his father Lamech, (as also his grandfather 
Methuselah) was numbered with the unjust, and that only an 
"untimely death" (he died at the age of 777) saved him from a 
watery grave. I say "it seems the inevitable conclusion," be- 
cause there are many circumstances of the case of which we are 
ignorant. Well indeed has the wise king said: "The hoary head 
is a crown of glory when it is found in the way of righteousness." 
Prov. 16: 31. We see here the strong temptation to which the 
LXX appear to have yielded in adding and taking away, as we 
have said, a hundred years, in the case of most of these antedilu- 
vian patriarchs (see Note 12), in order to lengthen out the time 
as given in the Hebrew chronology. 

It would delight us not a little to understand the exclamation 
with which Lamech gave the welcome to his new born son, 
Noah, as an expression of pious faith and hope in the promised 
Seed of the Woman; but in view of the universal corruption (ch. 
6: 12, 13) of those times it seems to us difficult to do so, even 
according to the chronology of the LXX. Notwithstanding this, 
so evil were those times and so bitter the fruit of man's impiety, 
when iniquity was reaching to its fill (as in the worst excesses of 
the French Revolution, from 1789 to 1795), that neither faith in 
God nor holiness of life were necessary in order that Lamech 
should sigh for the promised period of rest; just as the Jews of 
the first century sighed for the advent of the Messiah, at the very 
time they were seeking to imbrue their hands in his blood. 

It is difficult to believe that Lamech had no son before Noah, 
who was born to him when 182 years old; but however that may 
be, this particular son he named Noah (=:Rest); and the rea- 
son that is given for it manifests that, as the promise of the 
Messiah was universally disseminated among the Jews before 
the coming of Christ, so also the promise regarding the "Seed 
of the Woman" was a thing well known in the years before the 
flood, and was the hope of all serious-minded people "This 
same," exclaimed Lamech, "shall comfort us in our work and the 
toil of our hands, because of the ground which Jehovah hath 
cursed!" Ch. 5: 29. These words may be understood spiritually, 
or in a purely worldly sense, according to the character which 
we ascribe to Lamech; but, in any case, they point as with the 
finger to the promise of the Liberator, and of his longed-for 



80 GENESIS 

rest; as in his day Isaiah said: "And his rest shall be glorious." 
Isa. 11: 10. See also the argument of Paul about this rest 
which remaineth (— is yet to come), in Heb. 4: 2 — 9. 

As has been already said, it is not credible that Noah should 
not have married until he was 500 years of age, nor, that having 
married early he should have had no children till that age. If 
he had children before this, it is probable that they died young. 
The pen refuses to write the alternative supposition. Neverthe- 
less, there is little doubt that he had brothers and sisters, the 
children of Lamech who perished. Vr. 30. Shem was the oldest of 
Noah's three sons (ch. 10: 21, A. V. and M. S. V.), Ham the young- 
gest (ch. 9: 24). In ch. 11: 10, we read that "Shem was a hundred 
years old when he begat Arphaxad, two years after the flood"; 
from which we infer that the eldest son of Noah, or the oldest of 
these three, was 98 years old at the time of the deluge; and that 
when Noah received commandment to build the ark, 100 or 120 
years before, he had no son, or at least none of these three. 

[Note 14. — On the antediluvian civilization. It is but a very 
few years (in 1898 or 1899 perhaps) since our newspapers, both 
secular and religious, contained startling notices of the discovery, 
30 or 40 feet below the ruins of the ancient Nineveh, of the buried 
ruins of another city anterior to that, which with no little con- 
fidence they published as the ruins of an antediluvian Nineveh, 
submerged by the waters of Noah's flood, and covered with the 
enormous deposits of sediment which must have accompanied 
that unparalleled catastrophe. According to the best information 
I have been able to gather, these were premature and distorted 
reports of the discoveries of Prof. Hilprecht, at Nippur, sup- 
posed to be the ancient Calneh, more than a hundred miles dis- 
tant from Nineveh. But the fact that Noah was able to build 
such a structure as his ark, plainly reveals the existence of a 
very advanced civilization, and of great riches at that time; 
and as the cities of that day were destroyed instantaneously (as 
were Herculaneum and Pompeii by an eruption of Mt. Vesu- 
vius, in the year 70 of our Era), it is altogether possible that 
there is reserved for the 20th century the discovery of the re- 
mains of antediluvian cities, buried in like manner beneath the 
alluvial soil of the plains of the Tigris and Euphrates — rivers 
which existed from the days of Eden. Ch. 2: 14. Nobody need 
be surprised at this, who reflects on the astonishing manner in 
which God is now confirming his written word by means of the 
"monuments" of Egypt, Babylon and Assyria, which during the 
last fifty years are being brought to light, from out of the 



CHAPTER 6: 1—8 81 

pyramids, and the tombs of Egypt, and the mounds of rubbish 
of the ruined cities of Assyria, Chaldea and Babylonia.] 

CHAPTER VI. 

VES. 1 8. MIXED MARRIAGES, AND THEIR TERRIBLE RESULTS. 

(Of uncertain date.) 

1 And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face 
of the ground, and daughters were born unto them, 

2 that the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were 
fair; and they took them wives of all that they chose. 

3 And Jehovah said, My Spirit shall not strive with man for 
ever, for that he also is flesh : yet shall his days be a hundred and 
twenty years. 

4 The Nephilim* were in the earth in those days, and also after 
that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and 
they bare children to them : the same were the mighty men that were 
of old, the men of renown. 

5 And Jehovah saw that the wickedness of man was great in the 
earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was 
only evil continually. 

6 And it repented Jehovah that he had made man on the earth, 
and it grieved him at his heart. 

7 And Jehovah said, I will destroy man whom I have created 
from the face of the ground ; both man, and beast, and creeping 
things, and birds of the heavens ; for it repenteth me that I have made 
them. 

8 But Noah found favor in the eyes of Jehovah. 

*Or, giants. See Num. 13 : 33. 

This paragraph assigns the reason for the terrible corruption 
of men which brought the deluge of waters upon the world. We 
have already seen that after the death of "Abel the just" by 
the fratricidal hand of Cain, Seth was given and accepted as a 
substitute for him — "another seed" in the stead of that frustrated 
hope. We have seen also that in the days of Enosh, the son of 
Seth, godly men "began to be called by the name of Jehovah" 
(ch. 4:26); it was not necessary that the other class should 
have any distinctive name. But a thousand years passed, and 
here we have two classes of persons notably characterized as 
"the sons of God" and "the daughters of men", the union of 
which, co-operating with their long and vigorous life, and the 
correspondingly strong animal passions of the people of those 
days, cast down to the ground the last vestige that remained 
among men of piety and the fear of God. It is likely, and such 
is the ordinary belief among serious and religious persons, that 
those who in the days of Enosh began to be called by the name 
of Jehovah, are here called "sons of God," as is common usage in 
the Old and New Testaments (Ex. 4: 22; Deut. 14: 1; Isa. 43: 6; 
63: 16; Hos. 1: 10; John 8: 41, 42; Rom. 9: 8; 2 Cor. 6: 18; 



82 GENESIS 

1 John 3: 1,2); while those of a purely worldly character rejected 
then, just as they do now, that character and name, and con- 
sidered themselves more honored with the title "the sons (and 
daughters) of men." The subject of the paragraph is confessedly 
thorny and difficult, because so extremely brief. But the expo- 
sition now given of the former part of it is much more satis- 
factory than the extravagances which some have allowed them- 
selves to imagine or defend; and it is also the common explana- 
tion of the words "sons of God" and "daughters of men." On 
points of this nature it is better to suspend judgment until, in 
another and better life, we can consult Noah and Moses on the 
subject, rather than give loose rein to wild imaginations. Christ 
gives to his people an "eternal life"; so that they can well 
afford to wait. Augustine used to say: "Gfod is patient oecause 
he is eternal"; and his children may well imitate him therein. 
There are, for example, those who suppose here, just as in the 
case of the wife of Cain, that there were two distinct races of 
men in the world, the Adamic and the Pre-Adamic — a race per- 
haps half bestial; the mixture of which two races caused the 
moral desolations that are mentioned; and that when the He- 
brew text says in vr. 9 that "Noah was a just man and perfect 
in his generations," instead of meaning, as said in the text of 
the Modern Spanish Version, that he was "perfect among his con- 
temporaries" (a very proper and legitimate use of the word, 
according to Gesenius), it means to say that he was of pure stock 
and uncontaminated descent. An old Jewish opinion was that 
"the sons of God" were angels, or fallen angels, who by their 
union with women of human stock, produced the giants, or 
"Nephilim"; of whom the mythology of the Greeks and Romans 
brings us many fantastic, wicked and impure stories. Extrava- 
gances are both of these explanations, which have no basis in rea- 
son, or in science, or in Scripture; although we cannot satisfac- 
torily explain the difficulties of the passage, nor resolve the 
doubts which vr. 4 awakens, nor elucidate the reference to the 
powerful antediluvians, "men of renown;" to whom there are 
several allusions in Job and other books of the Old Testament, 
as being buried beneath the waters of Noah's Flood. See, for 
example, Ps. 88: 10; Job 26: 51, compared with Job 22: 15—18; 
Prov. 2: 18; 9: 18; 21: 26. It was very natural that an event 
which so deeply and powerfully affected the minds of the 
ancient world, should come to give form and coloring to the 
popular ideas of those times with regard to the mysterious subject 
of hell, the end and destiny of the wicked (a subject little less 
mysterious for us), and that it should give not only much occu- 



CHAPTER 6: 1—8 83 

pation to the imagination and inventive faculty of the Jewish 
doctors, as we have seen, but that those heroes of wickedness, 
the "mighty men that were of old, the men of renown," with 
many fabulous inventions, should be converted into the gods and 
demi-gods whom the pagans of antiquity worshiped, and of whom 
Paul says: "The things which gentiles offer in sacrifice they 
sacrifice to demons and not to God" (1 Cor. 10: 20); it being 
understood that "demons" in the mouth of the Greeks, were the 
spirits of dead heroes, converted into divinities; all which differs 
but little, except in name and in the personal character of those 
so deified, from the worship of the saints, which Romanism 
baptizes with the name of "Christianity." It is likely also that 
these were "the demons," or "devils," whose worship, frequently 
obscene, the ancient Israelites often substituted for the worship 
of Jehovah. Deut. 32: 27; Ps. 106: 37. 

It serves to increase the difficulties of this passage that the 
"Nephilim", or giants, were not the product of the mixed mar- 
riages of vr. 3, as is frequently represented. The Hebrew text 
will not sanction such a meaning. The correct translation of the 
Hebrew makes a marked distinction between the two. The 
progeny which came of those unholy unions is mentioned as 
something additional, which was "and also" and "after that." 
We, who are the children and heirs of God and have the promise 
and security of an endless life, in the case of involved and difficult 
passages like this, will do well to suspend judgment, until we 
have the opportunity of consulting the case with those who can 
give us the certainty of it at first hand. 

In the midst of these difficulties, then, and of the scanty infor- 
mation which God has been pleased to give us about the matter, 
we content ourselves with the explanation already given, as the 
common opinion, and the only one that is satisfactory to most 
serious persons; to wit, that the act of completely blotting out 
the distinction between the just and the unjust, "the children of 
God" and the "children of men," by means of matrimonial al- 
liances (using the word "matrimonial" in a wide sense, to in- 
clude sexual relations in general), resulted in the complete ruin 
of the cause of God in the world, and in the complete triumph 
of the cause of that "old Serpent, who is called the Devil and 
Satan." With reason, then, in all the ages of the past, God has 
admonished his people to beware of this. Moses said to them: "Ye 
are the children of Jehovah your God" (Deut. 14: 1), and as such 
he commanded them very often that they should have no family 
relations with the pagan nations that were around them; to the 
same effect, and as speaking to "sons and daughters of the Lord 



84 GENESIS 

Almighty," Paul solemnly admonished the Christians of his day 
about the same matter. 2 Cor. 6: 14 — 18. Polygamy, or univer- 
sal and unbridled lewdness, is indicated by the words, "they took 
to themselves wives (Heo. women), of all that they chose." An- 
other necessary result of such dissoluteness was violent dis- 
cord and strife, and even wars, on account of the women thus 
carried back and forth. In ancient Greece the abduction of the 
beautiful Helen caused the long and disastrous Trojan war; and 
among the greatest of good things that a pure Christianity has 
brought to us, is the inviolability of the family, and the quiet 
and secure possession of the most precious treasure of the home. 

In those days of portentous wickedness, the Holy Spirrt, by 
means of the natural conscience, strove or contended with men in 
their error; but with so little success, that Jehovah said: "My 
Spirit shall not always strive with man in his error; he is 
flesh" (Mod. Span. Ver.) ; — words which seem to imply that 
those carnal sinners were so unbridled and shameless in their 
excesses and violences that the case no longer admitted a remedy; 
notwithstanding which, God granted them a respite of 120 years, 
before he made an end of them. The words "My Spirit shall not 
always strive with man in his error," rationalists and semi- 
rationalists would wish to deprive of their evangelical meaning, 
in order to give them some insipid sense which they regard as 
more convenient. The former sense is confirmed by Isaiah, 
who to the same effect says: "But they rebelled and grieved 
his Holy Spirit; wherefore he was turned to be their enemy, 
and himself fought against them." Isa. 63: 10. And in times of 
the New Testament, Stephen said to his murderous opponents: 
"Ye do always resist the Holy Spirit; as your fathers did, so 
also do ye" Acts 7: 51. Although the words are in fact sus- 
ceptible of several other translations, that given is the best and 
the one most generally accepted; and in these Studies I regard 
it most convenient ordinarily to attend to a single meaning 
which is good, Scriptural and of common approval, rather than 
occupy ourselves with others of doubtful quality, which only 
serve to distract the reader's attention with various and con- 
tradictory senses. 

The word "Nephilim" (vr. 4) is in Num. 13: 23 translated 
"the giants, sons of Anak"; and such is probably its meaning 
in this place — whether speaking of men of prodigious stature, 
of prodigious strength and rapacity, or of prodigious pride and 
wickedness. The Hebrew word signifies "fallers" and some sup- 
pose that it refers to the rapacious and violent, who falling 
upon the defenceless, made of them and of all they possessed 



CHAPTER 6: 1—8 85 

a prey. Others translate it "fallen" and understand it as re- 
ferring either to fallen angels or to apostate men, fallen away 
from God. In this uncertainty, it seems hest and most secure, 
to preserve the word in its Hebrew form, as in fact is done by the 
Revisers of the English Bible. In vrs. 5, 6, 7, the historian seems 
to labor painfully to find words adequate to duly set forth the 
extreme impiety of those times, and the pain and disgust with 
which God looked on that human creation which interested him 
so deeply, and which, at its beginning, caused him so great sat- 
isfaction: "And Jehovah saw that the wickedness of man was 
great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts 
of his heart was only evil continually. And it repented Jehovah 
that he had made man upon the earth, and it grieved him at his 
heart. And Jehovah said: I will destroy man whom I have 
created from the face of the ground; both man and beast and 
creeping things, and birds of the heavens; for it repenteth me 
(or grieves me) that I have made them." The word "it repenteth 
me" may also more properly be translated "I am sorry" or 
"grieved," as given in the Modern Spanish Version, which is the 
primitive meaning of the verb "naham", and there is no good 
reason for adopting the more difficult sense of the two. Here 
the sacred writer avails himself of our manner of speech in 
order to convey to us an idea of the utter disgust of God, and to 
declare his solemn and deliberate purpose of sweeping the earth 
of its impious inhabitants, and of washing it clean of the 
crimes and uncleannesses committed upon it; commencing anew 
the history of mankind in Noah, as a new Adam; — the only man 
among his contemporaries who had kept himself faithful to God 
and pure in his manner of life; — his three sons were not yet 
born, as said before. 

In all this, it concerns us to see what we are ourselves by 
nature, and of what our fallen nature is capable when deprived 
of divine help, and bereft of the example and influence of those 
who love and serve God. Such was the world when only one 
just man was found in it. Compare the case of Sodom. Ch. 
18: 32; 19, 16. 

In the midst of this frightful corruption, "Noah found favor 
(M. S. V., 'grace') in the sight of Jehovah." The word "grace" 
here and in all the Bible signifies unmerited favor; and it is 
important to hold always before us that man, as a sinner, can 
merit nothing before God except the punishment of his sins. 
The pardon of sin was to Noah, as it is to us, an unmerited grace. 
Eph. 1: 7. Notwithstanding this, "to find grace" may likewise 
express the pleasure with which God looked upon this his serv- 



86 GENESIS 

ant, who confessed his name and was found faithful before him 
in the midst of the universal corruption of his contemporaries: 
see this use of the word in ch. 39: 4, 21. It is hard enough in a 
Christian land, and surrounded by great numbers of pious peo- 
ple, to keep ourselves from the corruptions of the world; how 
great, then, was the faith of Noah, and how worthy was he of 
our praise and imitation, who "walked with God," and held 
faithfully to his paths, when "all flesh had corrupted its way," 
and he only was found "righteous before God!" Divine grace 
alone made him capable of doing this, as it does us; but not on 
this account did God regard him with any the less favor, 
but on the contrary, with yet greater favor; because it was all 
"to the glory of his grace which he freely bestows on us in his 
beloved (Son)." Eph. 1: 6. 

6: 9 — 12. THE UNIVERSAL AND FRIGHTFUL CORRUPTION OF THE WHOLE 

HUMAN RACE. (2468 B. C.) 

9 These are the generations of Noah. Noah wns a righteous man, 
and perfect in his generations : Noah walked with God. 

10 And Noah begat three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth. 

11 And the earth was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled 
with violence. 

12 And God saw the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt ; for all 
flesh had corrupted their way upon the earth. 

"The generations of Noah" in this passage means memoirs, 
or family history, as we see in many places, where there is no 
allusion to genealogies or lineal descendants. This we have seen 
in ch. 2:4; and here also, where it does not pass beyond Shem, 
Ham and Japheth. We see it also in ch. 11: 27; 25: 19, and 
particularly in ch. 37: 2, which introduces to us the history of 
Joseph. This secondary sense was easily derived from the 
primary sense of a genealogical list. Some suppose that "perfect 
in his generations" in vr. 9 (a different word in Hebrew from the 
other), means that Noah was of pure and unmixed blood; but as 
the word "perfect" never has such a sense in the Bible, it is more 
proper to understand that generations is used as a designation 
of time, (—ages), and signifies those of his age, or as the text of 
the Modern Spanish Version says, "his contemporaries", — the 
sense as given by Gesenius. 

This great man, who was like another Adam — the second 
progenitor of the human family "walked with God," as walked 
his grandfather, Enoch; the same who prophesied of the judgment 
that was fast coming upon the earth (page 75); and the extreme 
wickedness of those of his time impelled him to yet greater in- 
timacy with his God. 



CHAPTER 6: 13—22 87 

"Violence" and total corruption of morals formed the dis- 
tinctive characteristics of the wickedness of those times; the 
first, referring to oppression, injustice and murder and the other, 
to the unbridled passions of men and women. It is probable, 
and almost certain, that the arts and sciences had reached a very 
high degree of perfection before the deluge; otherwise Noah 
would never have been able to build an ark like that he made; 
but as it happened in Rome, in the time of its greatest achieve- 
ments and grandeur, the arts and sciences, and its highest 
civilization were prostituted to the service of human wicked- 
ness. Material idolatry does not appear to have existed, but on 
the contrary, pure atheism and a complete negation of God. 

6: 13 — 22. THE AKK. GOD ESTABLISHES HIS COVENANT WITH NOAH. 

(2468 b. c.) 

13 And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before 
me ; for the earth is filled with violence through them ; and, behold, 
I will destroy them with the earth. 

14 Make thee an ark of gopher wood ; rooms shalt thou make in 
the ark, and shalt pitch it within and without with pitch. 

15 And this is how thou shalt make it : the length of the ark 
three hundred cubits, the breadth of it fifty cubits, and the height 
of it thirty cubits. 

16 A light* shalt thou make to the ark, and to a cubit shalt thou 
finish it upward ; and the door of the ark shalt thou set in the side 
thereof; with lower, second, and third stories shalt thou make it. 

17 And I, behold, I do bring the flood of waters upon the earth, to 
destroy all flesh, wherein is the breath of life, from under heaven ; 
everything that is in the earth shall die. 

18 But I will establish my covenant with thee ; and thou shalt 
come into the ark, thou, and thy sons, and thy wife, and thy sons' 
wives with thee. 

19 And of every living thing of all flesh, two of every sort shalt 
thou bring into the ark, to keep them alive with thee ; they shall be 
male and female. 

20 Of the birds after their kind, and of the cattle after their kind, 
of every creeping thing of the ground after its kind, two of every sort 
shall come unto thee, to keep them alive. 

21 And take thou unto thee of all food that is eaten, and gather 
it to thee ; and it shall be for food for thee, and for them. 

22 Thus did Noah ; according to all that God commanded him, 
so did he. 

l*H. 8. Y., skylight.] 

In view of the extreme wickedness of men, God resolved to 
destroy them completely, and begin the race anew in the family 
of Noah; with the additional advantage of the terrible example 
made of the impious world of the antediluvians. There had al- 
ready failed two experiments* which God was making with the 

♦This figure of speech is not original with the author, hut was a 
favorite one with my old preceptor (in 1852-1855), the late Dr. J. Ad- 



88 GENESIS 

fallen race of Adam: the first, which ended with the violent 
death of Abel; and the second (that of the formal separation be- 
tween the wicked Cainites and the pious Sethites, who from the 
days of Enosh were called by the name of Jehovah), which was 
wrecked by the mixed marriages that put an end to such separa- 
tion; — experiments made, not that God might be assured of the 
hopeless depravity of men, but that in all coming ages the race 
might know its own utter ruin, and the native wickedness in- 
herent in it, and turn to the remedy which God, at infinite cost to 
himself, has provided for us. 

Now then, at this point God began still another trial or experi- 
ment, the third, to see whether a divine judgment such as can only 
be compared with the final judgment (of which it was in fact a 
vivid type and representation), would bring the race to take 
warning, and to amend its perverse way before him. He said 
therefore, to Noah: "The end of all flesh is come before me;" 
and he commanded him to "prepare an ark for the saving of his 
house." 

The manner of this communication it is not given us to under- 
stand. With Adam, with Eve, with the Serpent and with Cain 
God had spoken in a manner perfectly comprehensible by them. 
The holy Enoch "walked with God," and without any doubt 
(being a prophet), he had more or less frequent communication 
with him. And God communicated with Noah in such a manner 
that he had no more doubt of it than of the voice of his wife or 
his sons. The allegation, then that (when there is occasion for 
it) God cannot communicate his will with infallible and in- 
dubitable certainty, reduces him to a condition of less dignity 
and power than a mortal man. Any governor, or magistrate, or 
county sheriff, without the least difficulty, is able to send out his 
proclamations, edicts and notices, in such a way that in all parts 
of the country, people shall know with absolute certainty what 
has been ordered or decreed; and if the King of Heaven cannot 
do as much, he is no better than the dumb gods of wood and 
stone. So that the denial of the possibility of a divine revelation, 
well accredited, certain and absolutely sure, is equivalent to the 
negation of God himself. What does it matter to us that God 
exists, if it is impossible for him to communicate with us? 
Without entering, therefore, into the inquiry of how he did it, 
we take for granted that he did in fact communicate with him, 
with such clearness and abundance of evidence that Noah no 
dison Alexander, of Princeton Seminary, N. J. ; and when properly and 
reverently used, it sheds great light on the divine procedure with our 
fallen race. — Tr. 



CHAPTER 6: 13—22 89 

more doubted of it than of his own existence; and this, as re- 
gards all the details of the plan and arrangements of the ark 
which we have now before us. "By faith" — and faith is the 
simple and explicit confidence which we have in the word and 
testimony of God — "by faith Noah, being warned of God of things 
not seen as yet, moved with godly fear, prepared an ark for the 
saving of his house; through which he condemned the world and 
became heir of the righteousness which is according to faith." 
Heb. 11: 7. 

[Note 15. — On the time that Noah was occupied in preparing 
the ark. Only three sons of his, Shem, Ham and Japheth are 
mentioned in this history, and all three were born when he had 
already passed his five hundredth year. It is therefore difficult 
to suppress the suspicion that Noah had other sons besides these, 
who had already died, or who were united in character and 
destiny with the impious, who perished in the Flood. If, as we 
have already indicated (p. 80), Shem, the oldest of the three, 
was only 98 years old at the time of the Deluge, then it is evident 
that Noah did not occupy the 120 years of the divine forbearance 
with a reprobate race (vr. 3), in building his ark, as is often rep- 
resented; because when God commanded him to "prepare an ark 
for the saving of his house," he ordered, that when finished, "his 
sons and his son's wives" should enter into it, as well as himself 
and his wife (vr. 18) ; unless we suppose that vrs. 13 — 21 embrace 
the substance of several communications which he had in the 
course of the 120 years; as was true of Abraham and of others. 
See comments on ch. '12: 1. 

Peter tells us (2 Pet. 2:5; 1 Pet. 3: 20) that Noah was "a 
preacher of righteousness"; but that his wicked contemporaries 
"were incorrigible, when the long patience of God waited while 
the ark was preparing." This seemingly has given occasion 
for the belief that Noah employed the 120 years of the divine 
longsuffering in building the ark; but for reasons just given I 
believe that such an inference is ill-founded, unless we suppose 
that Noah commenced the work twenty-two years before the 
eldest of his three sons were born; but it is probable, as has al- 
ready been suggested, that what is related in vrs. 13 — 21 was 
not a single communication, but the substance of several.] 

The ark was not a ship; it is even doubtful whether sea-going 
ships were known at that period, in which it would seem that 
the centres of population were still remote from the sea. And 
the name given to this structure ("ark" or "box") seems to con- 
firm the idea that there were no "ships" in those times; other- 
wise it would naturally have taken the form and also the name 



90 GENESIS 

of the great vessels of ancient times, whose largest dimensions 
it exceeded almost beyond computation. 

Many ages passed after Noah's day before maritime cities were 
founded; all which leads us to believe that there were not at 
that period ship-yards and ship-carpenters; a circumstance 
which notably increased the difficulty of Noah's enterprise, and 
sets in bold relief his faith, in obeying without delay, and to the 
very letter, the order which he had received from God: — "And 
Noah did so; according to all that God commanded him, so did 
he." Vr. 22. 

The tediously slow and unheard-of enterprise which Noah un- 
dertook, and in which, being undoubtedly rich, he invested not 
only his time, but all his worldly estate, was nothing less than that 
of building a great "box" 300 cubits long, 50 wide and 30 high; 
or 450, 75 and 45 feet respectively, estimating the cubit at eigh- 
teen inches, or a foot and a half. It was made of pine, or cypress, 
or fir, or cedar; for it is not known positively what class of 
wood is represented by the word "gopher" and probably the 
word designates a family of incorruptible woods, rather than 
any one class exclusively. The ark was to consist of three 
stories, 14 or 15 feet high, with a door in the side, and a skylight 
(Heb. "light") all around, at a distance of one cubit from the 
upper part of each story — formed perhaps by the omission of one 
plank in the external sheathing of the ark — for light and ventila- 
tion. Besides this, each story was to be divided into rooms, 
cells or stalls {Heb. nests), for the accommodation of the differ- 
ent classes of animals, and storing provision for their main- 
tenance. We know also, from ch. 8: 6, that he made a window 
in the ark, probably in the roof; guarding it thus against the 
impact of the tremendous waves which it would have to suffer, 
particularly at the beginning of the deluge. A heart less valiant 
and full of faith than that of Noah, would have been appalled 
at an enterprise so superior to all his resources, and so foreign 
to his business, whatever that may have been. Peter calls him 
"a preacher of righteousness" (2 Pet. 2:5); but with refer- 
ence doubtless to his character; rather than his office. God made 
every kind of bird and beast to come in to Noah, male and 
female; but of clean birds and animals, such as would serve for 
sacrifice (ch. 8: 20) seven of each class, three pairs and one odd 
one, both to offer them in sacrifice, and also to eat, after the 
deluge, without making an end of the race. 

With regard to the possibility of accommodating so many ani- 
mals in so small space, there is no real difficulty, when we bear 
in mind that the ark contained 33,750 square feet of surface in 



CHAPTER 6: 13—22 91 

each one of its three stories, or say, 101,250 square feet in all; 
and when we also bear in mind that the animals were not the 
totality of animals which we know in all the world, but those 
known to Noah in that day, which, according to the rude classi- 
fication of the ancients, would be much less extensive than our 
own. With regard to the food which he was to provide (ch. 6: 
21), there will be no difficulty for him who receives the testimony 
of God, and who remembers that on a certain occasion of need, 
Jesus furnished food to 5,000 men with the short supply of five 
loaves and two small fishes; and as for him who does not receive 
the testimony of God, it is all one whether we can satisfactorily 
explain the various problems of the deluge or not. The wild 
beasts and birds of prey here, as in ch. 1: 30, need not cause us 
any difficulty, if we remember that to the believing man one ex- 
plicit testimony of God is sufficient to remove the most formidable 
difficulties and objections; besides which, it should be considered 
that in histories so extremely brief as these, we cannot expect 
that all difficulties which present themselves are to be explained, 
in order that we may receive and believe them. We receive and 
believe them, not because they are reasonable or probable, but on 
the authentic testimony of God who cannot lie. The Bible is a 
revelation of the will of God for our salvation, and he who does 
not care to believe the testimony of God, cannot be saved. Mark 
16:" 16; John 5: 10. If we wish to oblige God to explain everything 
to us before we believe him, what room will there be for faith? 
We believe that God, who gave to Noah (who was not a ship- 
builder) particular directions as to the construction of the ark, 
would so guide him in all the details of the work, that he might 
have strength and endurance to reach the proposed end; and that 
in like manner, by his providence, he would bring the animals, 
of their own accord to the ark, at the opportune time, and would 
make provision for their maintenance, causing the wild beasts in 
the ark to be as tame as the lions in Daniel's den (Dan. 6: 22); 
and as for those who do not believe the history of Daniel, ac- 
credited to have been a "prophet" by Jesus himself (Matt. 24: 15), 
it matters very little whether we leave them satisfied or not with 
regard to the story of Noah. 

Nevertheless it is to be remembered that, as Noah's Flood 
was probably caused by the depression of the crust of the earth, 
in its inhabited part, rather than by the simultaneous and uni- 
versal elevation of the seas above the whole earth, as will be 
seen in the comments on ch. 8: 1 — 14, it would not be necessary 
that animals, wild beasts and birds of all classes known to us, 
should enter. It is certain that there was no "sloth" there from 



92 GENESIS 

South America, which in a thousand years could not travel on 
foot to Asia, even though it had an overland route provided 
with daily rations of fresh leaves; nor yet the kangaroo of Aus- 
tralia. It would he the less necessary, therefore, to suppose that 
there was there the polar hear from North America, the Bengal 
tiger and the elephant of India, nor the African lion. The nar- 
rative of the deluge is popular in form, and as in the story of 
the creation, here also the facts are presented according to the 
appearance that things would have to an observer of that day, 
rather than as they would present themselves to our eyes, who 
occupy a very different position and take in with one sweep of 
vision a much vaster horizon. 

"Z will establish my covenant with thee" Vr. 18. For the 
first time we meet here the word "covenant;" which figures in 
such a remarkable way in the Bible, and in every well co-ordi- 
nated system of Bible religion; from which some leap to the 
conclusion that now, for the first time, God made a covenant 
with men. But there is no reasonable doubt that this is the 
same covenant which, without mentioning it by that name, God 
made with regard to "the Woman and her Seed," when he gave 
to men the first of all the promises; which also, without calling 
it by the name of "promise," was yet the promise of human re- 
demption; according as is believed and accepted by Christian 
people of every name. Nobody doubts that God made a covenant 
with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob; and yet, although it is many 
times repeated, only twice is it called a covenant in the history 
of Abraham, once in that of Isaac, and never in that of Jacob. 
For the most part it is spoken of as "the promise given to 
Abraham," and also "the blessing of Abraham." I do not hesitate, 
therefore, to affirm that the covenant which God celebrated with 
Noah was not a new thing, but that he confirmed with him the 
covenant which he had always had with his people, who, for 
this cause, and only for this cause, from the days of Enosh were 
"called by the name of Jehovah"; a covenant based on the 
primeval promise as to the Seed of the Woman. The same 
promise and covenant God confirmed with Noah, the only 
earthly representative of the people of Jehovah that remained to 
him in the world; and in order to give effect to the promise, 
he took the necessary steps that the race should not perish. 

The antiquity of this covenant in the days of Noah is clearly 
attested in the Revised Version of the English Bible, which ex- 
plicitly recognizes the covenant made with Adam, in the words 
of the prophet Hosea; "like Adam, they have transgressed the cove- 
nant." Hos. 6 : 7. See also Note 7, on the covenant made with Adam. 



CHAPTER 7: 1—5 93 

The crimson thread, dyed in the blood of sacrifice, runs through 
the whole of the Old Testament; and here, in this covenant, we 
see it reduce its sphere of operation to the family of Noah alone, 
leaving to perish that whole generation of "forgetters of God." 
Indeed, the words: "My covenant will I establish with thee'' 
give us clearly to understand in this place, as also in the many 
others in which God uses the phrase, that it was not a new 
thing, out well known and recognized in the world, and of all 
things most precious; and that it now came to be deposited in 
the hands of the patriarch Noah. 

More noble testimony could not be given as to any man's 
character and work than that which we read respecting Noah, 
at the close of the directions which God gave him for the salva- 
tion of his family, lineage and race: "and noah did so; accord- 
ing TO ALL THAT GOD COMMANDED HIM, SO DID HE." Vr. 20. MOSeS 

celebrates the work of Noah, and Paul his faith (Heb. 11: 7) ; but 
the two amount to the same thing; because his work without 
his faith would have teen an act of madness, and his faithi 
without his work, a lie! 



CHAPTER VII. 

VRS. 1 — 5. NOAH AND HIS FAMILY ENTER THE ARK. 

(2340 b. c. Year of the World, 1656.) 

1 And Jehovah said unto Noah, Come thou and all thy house into 
the ark ; for thee have I seen righteous before me in this generation. 

2 Of every clean beast thou shalt take to thee seven and seven,* 
the male and his female ; and of the beasts that are not clean two, 
the male and his female : 

3 of the birds also of the heavens, seven and seven,* male and 
female, to keep seed alive upon the face of the earth. 

4 For yet seven days, and I will cause it to rain upon the earth 
forty days and forty nights ; and every living thing that I have made 
will I destroy from off the face of the ground. 

5 And Noah did according unto all that Jehovah commanded him. 

l*A. V., by sevens.] 

When the ark was finished, and the preparations which were to 
be made had been completed, on the seventh day before the 
flood began, God commanded Noah and his sons to enter the ark; 
and without delaying till he saw any indication of the great 
catastrophe, nor even waiting for the animals to enter before 
them, "Noah did according to all that Jehovah had commanded 
him." Vr. 5. Such are the operations of faith; so God tries and 
proves that incomparable jewel which saves our souls — "faith 
which worketh by love," Gal. 5: 6. 



94 GENESIS 

7: 6 — 24. the deluge. (2348 b. c. Year of the world 1658. 
According to the LXX, 3261 b. c. Year of the world, 2242.) 

6 And Noah was six hundred years old when the flood of waters 

was upon the earth. 

7 And Noah went in, and his sons, and his wife, and his sons' 
wives with him, into the ark, because of the waters of the flood. 

8 Of clean beasts, and of beasts that are not clean, and of birds, 
and of everything that creepeth upon the ground, 

9 there Vent in two and two unto Noah into the ark, male and 
female, as God commanded Noah. 

10 And it came to pass after the seven days, that the waters of 
the flood were upon the earth. 

11 In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, 
on the seventeenth day of the month, on the same day were all the 
fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven 
were opened. 

12 And the rain was upon the earth forty days and forty nights. 

13 In the selfsame day entered Noah, and Shem, and Ham, and 
Japheth, the sons of Noah, and Noah's wife, and the three wives of 
his sons wi'th them, into the ark ; 

14 they, and every beast after its kind, and all the cattle after 
their kind, and every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth 
after its kind, and every bird after its kind, every bird of every sort. 

15 And they went in unto Noah into the ark, two and two of all 
flesh wherein is the breath of life. 

16 And they that went in, went in male and female, of all flesh, 
as God commanded him : and Jehovah shut him in. 

17 And the flood was forty days upon the earth ; and the waters 
increased, and bare up the ark, and it was lifted up above the earth. 

18 And the waters prevailed, and increased greatly upon the earth ; 
and the ark went upon the face of the waters. 

19 And the waters prevailed exceedingly upon the earth ; and all 
the high mountains that were under the whole heaven were covered. 

20 Fifteen cubits upward did the waters prevail ; and the moun- 
tains were covered. 

21 And all flesh died that moved upon the earth, both birds, and 
cattle, and beasts, and every creeping thing that creepeth upon the 
earth, and every man ; 

22 all in whose nostrils was the breath of the spirit of life, of all 
that was on the dry land, died. 

23 And every living thing was destroyed that was upon the face 
of the ground, both man, and cattle, and creeping things, and birds 
of the heavens ; and they were destroyed from the earth : and Noah 
only was left, and they that were with him in the ark. 

24 And the waters prevailed upon the earth a hundred and fifty 
days. 

When God commanded, Noah, without waiting for anything 
more, entered with his family into the ark, and the animals 
came in after them, seven days (vr. 10) before there was any 
sign of the approach of the great catastrophe. In plain sight of 
the people who for many years had laughed at the folly of 
building that immense and ugly "box" on dry land, many 
leagues away from the sea, and still, no doubt, suffering the ridi- 
cule of those impious men, they entered the ark; "and Jehovah 
shut them in." 

The words "all the fountains of the great deep (M. S. V. "the 






CHAPTER 7: 6—24 95 

abyss") were broken up" may signify that the dikes which defend 
the earth against the invasion of the seas were broken through 
(see Job. 38: 8—11; Ps. 104: 8, 9; Jer. 5: 22); or it may signify 
that the waters, from beneath, apparently burst through the sur- 
face of the earth. "The windows of heaven" is a phrase much 
used in the Bible, and in such different senses, that it is an indi- 
cation of much ignorance or much perversity to insist that Moses 
believed that hidden up yonder in the skies there were oceans 
of water, which, through these windows, suddenly fell. 

The exact date at which the flood began was in the 600th year 
of the life of Noah, in the second month, and on the 17th day 
of the month. Vr. 11. In those days when there were no calen- 
dars nor any recognized epochs from which to compute time, 
and when of necessary consequence nobody cared about questions 
of chronology, it was the natural method to determine the dates 
of history according to the years of the life of some great actor 
in it, as did all the other nations of antiquity. The heavy rains 
lasted only 40 days and 40 nights (ch. 7: 4, 10, 12, 17); but the 
waters kept on rising higher and higher until, at the end of 150 
days, they passed over the tops of the highest mountains. Vr. 
24, and ch. 8 : 3. These two points are worthy of our special atten- 
tion. The waters continued to rise for 110 days after the great 
rains ceased, and for that very reason the rains could not be the 
cause of their rise. The word "prevailed," in vr. 24, seems to sig- 
nify that for the space of 150 days the waters continued to ad- 
vance and overwhelm the earth, as it is clearly stated in vrs. 18, 
19, 20; and that there they stopped rising, at an elevation of fifteen 
cubits above the highest mountains known to the writer. As 
it was not a matter of guess-work, the 15 cubits (or 22y 2 feet) 
clearly implies that he makes no allusion to the Himalayas and 
the Andes, of whose existence or height nothing was known in 
that part of the world, but rather, to mountains of known eleva- 
tion. After the end of the 150 days the waters began to subside. 
Ch. 8: 3. The deluge lasted 313 days (ch. 6: 11; 8: 13) ; although 
Noah and his family remained still in the ark (ch. 8: 14, 15), in 
order that the earth might become well dried before they went 
forth. So that the waters rose for 150 days, and they subsided 
in 163 days; the abode of Noah and his people in the ark lasted 
for one year and ten days after the deluge began, with seven 
days more in which they waited for it, shut up in the ark; or 
altogether, the space of one year and seventeen days. 

The purpose and effect of the deluge was the utter destruction 
of every animal on dry land, and the birds of heaven, and every 
man; for whose sake alone that terrific destruction was sent. 



96 GENESIS 

In Gen. 3: 17, we read that the earth, or ground, was cursed for 
man's sake; here the inhabited world was destroyed for man's 
sake; and in Rom. 8: 19 — 23, Paul teaches us that it still "groans 
beneath the bondage of corruption," longing, with outstretched 
neck, for the day of its liberation, and of its admission into the 
glorious liberty of the children of God — the day of "the re- 
demption of our body." The deluge was universal with respect 
to men; its commission was to. destroy utterly the ungodly race, 
whose insupportable sins had provoked beyond endurance the 
wrath of heaven; in order that the human race might begin 
afresh in the family of Noah, that second Adam. The question 
whether the whole earth, inhabited and uninhabited — our ter- 
raqueous globe, was submerged, we reserve for consideration in 
the following chapter. 

CHAPTER VIII. 

VRS. 1 — 14. END OF THE DELUGE. (2347 B. C.) 

1 And God remembered Noah, and all the beasts, and all the cattle 
that were with him in the ark ; and God made a wind to pass over 
the earth, and the waters assuaged ; 

2 the fountains also of the deep and the windows of heaven were 
stopped, and the rain from heaven was restrained ; 

3 and the waters returned from off the earth continually : and 
after the end of a hundred and fifty days the waters decreased. 

4 And the ark rested in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day 
of the month, upon the mountains of Ararat. 

5 And the waters decreased continually until the tenth month : 
in the tenth month, on the first day of the month, were the tops of 
the mountains seen. 

6 And it came to pass at the end of forty days, that Noah opened 
the window of the ark which he had made : 

7 and he sent forth a raven, and it went forth to and fro, until 
the waters were dried up from off the earth. 

8 And he sent forth a dove from him, to see if the waters were 
abated from off the face of the ground ; 

9 but the dove found no rest for the sole of her foot, and she 
returned unto him to the ark ; for the waters were on the face of the 
whole earth : and he put forth his hand, and took her, and brought 
her in unto him into the ark. 

10 And he stayed yet other seven days ; and again he sent forth the 
dove out of the ark ; 

11 and the dove came in to him at eventide ; and, lo, in her mouth 
an olive-leaf plucked off: so Noah knew that the waters were abated 
from off the earth. 

12 And he stayed yet other seven days, and sent forth the dove; 
and she returned not again unto him any more. 

13 And it came to pass in the six hundred and first year, in the 
first month, the first day of the month, the waters were dried up from 
off the earth : and Noah removed the covering of the ark, and looked, 
and, behold, the face of the ground wns dried. 

14 And in the second month, on the seven and twentieth day of 
the month, was the earth dry. 



CHAPTER 8: 1—14 97 

The words "God remembered Noah," etc., in verse 1, is a 
Hebraism, which means that he had them present in his mind 
and mercy, and commenced to work for their deliverance. The 
result of it was that after 150 days "he made a wind to pass over 
the earth, and the waters abated." "The windows of heaven" 
were closed at the end of the 40 days and 40 nights (ch. 7: 4, 
12, 17) ; for the words refer to a steady, extraordinary and un- 
exampled down-pour of water, limited to the 40 days and 40 
nights; although, without doubt, it rained much, though not 
incessantly, after that. The threefold repetition of the words 
"40 days and 40 nights" clearly indicates that those 40 days and 
nights were something altogether unexampled; days in which the 
waters fell in sheets or in cataracts, according to the translation 
of the LXX. The inundations of waters, falling perhaps like 
cloudbursts, formed and always have formed a most notable fea- 
ture of this cataclysm, and the one which most vividly im- 
pressed the senses; although it was not the most efficient cause 
in producing the deluge, as we shall see farther on. Job says 
(ch. 26: 8) that God "binds up the waters in his thick clouds, 
and the cloud is not rent under them." But here the clouds rent 
asunder and the waters fell in cataracts. "The fountains of the 
great deep" were not shut until the end of the 150 days, and upon 
this the waters were detained in their triumphant course and did 
not rise any higher. The two phenomena commenced simulta- 
neously, seven days after God had shut up Noah and his family 
in the ark (ch. 6: 10, 11); but the operation of the second, the 
true cause of the deluge, lasted for 110 days after the efficient 
operation of the first had ceased. This fact is very palpable; 
but it seems to escape the attention of most readers of the book. 
The fall of one foot of water in twenty four hours is a phenom- 
enal event, even in tropical regions; but this would not in 40 
days give more than 40 feet of elevation, even though it uni- 
formly covered the earth and the seas. And although six feet of 
water should so fall in the twenty four hours, this would give 
only 240 feet in the 40 days and 40 nights. It is impossible there- 
fore, that the rains should have had any great part in the pro- 
ducing of the deluge. Not only so, but we also know (what 
Moses and Noah probably did not know) that in times of con- 
tinued rain, the rainfall of today was produced by the evapora- 
tions of yesterday; so that, although the great and continued 
rains would produce inundations on land and in the rivers, they 
could not elevate at all the surface of the ocean But it seems 
evident that Moses himself did not attribute an exaggerated im- 
portance to the rain, except only as a terrifying accompaniment 



98 GENESIS 

of the flood; because lie joins together the two causes, and 
makes the second to continue in active operation for 110 days 
after the great rains had ceased; during which time the waters 
continued to prevail more and more in their ascendant course, 
until they swept over the tops of the loftiest mountains. It 
is clear and undeniable, therefore, that according to the Bible 
itself, the true cause of the deluge of Noah, was "the breaking 
up of all the fountains of the great deep," and not the falling 
of oceans of water from the heavens, where they had been 
mysteriously hidden from the second day of the creation (ch. 
1: 6, 7), as Bishop Amat says; and others also have said, who 
are not bishops. How well, then, did the Spirit of God guard 
the pen of Moses, and of the other writers whom he inspired, 
that they should not fall into the great errors of many of 
their most illustrious commentators! "Whoso is wise let him 
observe these things.*' Ps. 107: 43. 

Let us investigate, then, what were those "fountains of the 
great deep," the breaking up of which, in all their extent, was 
the efficient and principal cause of the production of waters 
sufficient to cover the inhabited earth, with its valleys and 
mountains, to an elevation of fifteen cubits above their highest 
summits. Here (as in the narrative of the creation) the sacred 
writer describes things not as they are in themselves, but ac- 
cording to the appearance they would offer to the eye of an 
observer. It cannot be doubted that on the breaking through of 
the dikes of the sea, the earth itself, as if from inexhaustible 
abysses, would appear to vomit forth seas of water; a thing little 
less horrifying, to one who should witness it, than the falling 
of the "cataracts" of heaven. We know that no such great 
abysses of water existed beneath the dry land; as illustrious 
commentators, even at the beginning of the 19th century have 
imagined; but we also know that the appearance of the thing 
would be the same, if the crust of the inhabited earth were 
depressed until it allowed the waters of the seas and oceans 
to rush toward the center of that depression; which we would 
naturally understand to be the center of the population of the 
world (undoubtedly immense) of that day. Contrary to the 
popular belief, it is not the sea level which is unstable; it is 
t,he dry land that is subject always to the movements of ele- 
vation or depression, due to its interior agitations; whose 
seething entrails are separated from the surface of the earth 
by a very thin crust of earthy matter, which serves also as a 
non-conductor of its inconceivable heats. On a small scale, 
this crust of the earth, which is scarcely one five-hundredth 



CHAPTER 8: 1—14 99 

part of the diameter of the globe (see Note on Chaos, p. 3), 
in. many places is in visible movement, rising or falling; and 
not infrequently it has been raised in one day or in one nighc 
to a great height, or it has sunk many feet beneath the sur- 
face of the ocean. It was not necessary, therefore, that God 
should have done more than to cause the inhabited earth, with 
its rivers, mountains and cities, to sink some hundreds or 
some thousands of feet, in order to give as its result the deluge 
which Moses describes, with all the appearances of an inundation 
caused by cataracts of water from the heavens (a constant 
accompaniment of great earthquakes), and seas of waters 
vomited forth from the bowels of the earth; and this by causes 
purely natural (though directed by God's especial providence), 
and without in the least interfering with the established laws 
of nature, or causing any serious variation in the ordinary 
level of the sea. This cataclysm, therefore, may be believed to 
have been caused by the gradual submersion of the crust of the 
earth, in the part then inhabited, beneath the level of the ocean; 
and the termination of the deluge would be effected by just 
the reverse of this; to wit, the gradual elevation of the crust 
of the earth, more or less to its former level. Under such cir- 
cumstances, the waters of the deluge, in proportion as the sur- 
face of the earth was gradually elevated, would "return from 
off the earth continually," as says the text (vr. 3), to the seas 
and oceans from whence they had come; the absolute quantity 
of water on our terraqueous globe remaining unaltered and un- 
alterable, before the deluge, during the deluge, and after the 
deluge. 

[This is in fact what has often happened in the geological 
ages of the past, during which ocean and dry land have changed 
places repeatedly and successively, in almost all parts of the 
world. Of this, the coal deposits found in all countries (and 
in England mined profitably to a depth of 4,000 feet beneath 
the surface), buried under mountains of rock, gravel, clay and 
earth, afford us the simplest and most tangible evidence; they 
being the product of forests and fens that once nourished on 
the surface of the earth; while mountains and Cordilleras bear 
up into the regions of the clouds, the rocky remains of deposits 
long ago formed in the bottom of seas and oceans. The fact 
that these alterations have been for the most part slow in 
their operation, does not materially alter the case. On a smaller 
scale, these alterations of sea and land, even in our own day, 
are sometimes very rapid, being effected in one day, or a single 
night— Tr.] 



100 GENESIS 

The reader should not regard this supposition as extravagant 
or incredible; for, taking in his hand a large orange, and with 
his two thumbs depressing the rind on one side until it forms 
a cup, capable of containing one or two tablespoonfuls of water, 
he will have before his eyes a vivid representation of what 
probably happened to the earth in the days of Noah; and 
with God, it would be as easy, and an operation as natural 
(though not so ordinary), to depress many thousand square 
leagues of the surface of the earth, as it is for the reader to 
make his cup in the rind of the orange. He ought, on the 
contrary, to bless the sustaining and patient hand of God, that 
he does not permit so thin a crust to sink beneath the weight 
of the abominations of men, and give at once occasion to that 
deluge of fire which threatens the world of the ungodly in the 
last day. 2 Pet. 3 : 6—14. 

The terms in which Moses describes the end of the flood 
correspond exactly with the supposition that the cause of the 
catastrophe was the depression of the crust of the earth in 
its inhabited part, and that its end was brought about by the 
contrary operation, — the gradual elevation of the depressed 
crust: "And the waters returned from off the earth continually; 
and after the end of 150 days the waters decreased." Vr. 3. 
Here we can almost see the waters as they returned to where 
they had formerly been, withdrawing from off the surface of 
the earth with a constant movement, as its gradual elevation 
threw them from off its surface. But according to the other and 
the ancient belief, that the whole globe was covered with water 
sufficient to bury oceans, seas, mountains, valleys, hills and plains 
in a winding sheet of waters, which passed 15 cubits above the 
tops of the Himalayas and the Andes, it would be necessary 
to create for this purpose a quantity of water many times greater 
than the totality of what exists, or has ever existed in the 
world, in order to bury it thus; and this for the purpose of 
destroying a race of sinners who occupied only a part, and 
perhaps a small part, of the continent of Asia. And after having 
effected this purpose, with so prodigious and so useless an ef- 
fort, what would become of such quantities of water when no 
longer necessary? Where would they go? How would they re- 
turn from off the earth? And whither would they withdraw, 
until the drowned earth was again brought into the condition of 
"dry land"? 

[Note 16. — On the testimony of the Bible as to the universality 
of the Flood, it will be very opportune to stop here and duly 
weigh the testimony of the Bible itself on this point; because for 



CHAPTER 8: 1—14 101 

the true Christian the testimony of God, in his inspired word, 
ought to outweigh all the scientific objections and difficulties 
which may be brought against it; and there are very estimable 
Christians who think that the following testimonies, taken from 
chapter seventh, are sufficient to establish solidly and forever 
the fact of the universality of the Noachian deluge, not only 
in the terms of the geography of the ancients, but of modern 
geography as well: to wit, (1) vrs. 19, 20 of chapter 7: "And 
the waters prevailed exceedingly upon the earth; and all the 
high mountains that were under the whole heavens were covered. 
Fifteen cubits upward did the waters prevail, and the mountains 
were covered"; and (2) vrs. 21 — 23 of the same chapter, which 
I do not cite, on account of their length; let the reader turn 
back and look at the passage for himself. 

There can be no doubt that for Noah and for Moses the flood 
was universal in the terms of their geography ; and this is doubt- 
less what Moses in his history desired to express. But it is 
necessary to remember that for Moses the world was not as 
large as it is for us. It is necessary also to make the Bible 
consistent with itself. In Deut. 2: 25 Moses said, in the name 
of Jehovah, to Israel: "This day I will begin to put* the dread 
of thee and the fear of thee upon the people that are under the 
whole heaven, who shall hear the report of thee, and shall tremble 
and be in anguish because of thee." Now, if it would be arrant 
nonsense to insist that in this Moses includes the five continents 
of Europe, Asia, Africa, America and Australia, who can reason- 
ably insist that all this, and nothing less, is what the same 
Moses means in ch. 7: 19, 20? But further, 1500 years after 
Moses, Luke (in Acts 2: 5) informs us that on the day of 
Pentecost "there were dwelling at Jerusalem, Jews, devout men 
from every nation under heaven" Here we have again the very 
same terms in which Moses expresses himself in regard to the 
extent of the deluge of Noah. But if the man would be esteemed 
a simpleton who should cite Luke to prove that there were 
then in Jerusalem Jews from the five continents mentioned, 
and pledge the inspiration of the Bible to prove that from all 
these the Jews annually went up to attend the great feasts 
of their nation in Jerusalem; where is the reason or the good 
sense of pledging the inspiration of the Bible to prove that 
in the days of Noah, the deluge of waters passed above the 
most elevated mountains of all these five continents? We must 
needs understand Moses, and the Bible in general, in conformity 
with their manner of speaking, and not with our own. See 
also Col. 1: 6, 23. Compare Luke 2: 1 and Rom. 1: 8. It is not 



102 GENESIS 

bo then, but just the opposite, that the Bible teaches that the 
waters of the deluge passed over the universal world.] 

"And the ark rested in the seventh month, on the 17th 
day of the month, on the mountains of Armenia" (Mod. Span. 
Ver.; Heo. Ararat). Vr. 4. The name "Ararat" occurs four 
times in the Hebrew Bible: here, and in 2 Kings 19: 37; Isa. 
37: 38; Jer. 51: 27. In the last three passages it refers to the 
country of Armenia; and there is no doubt that such ought to 
be the translation here also. There is a universal tradition in Ar- 
menia that it was there that the ark of Noah rested. Some have 
thought that the phrase "the mountains of Ararat" refers to the 
two peaks of that name, of which the higher rises 17,000 feet above 
the level of the sea (the smaller being 4,000 feet lower), but 
both of them covered with perpetual snows. On the sloping 
sides of the mountain there are several convents of Armenian 
monks, some of whom maintain, with many absurd stories, the 
still greater absurdity that the ark of Noah came to a stand 
on the top of the loftier peak, and that it still remains there; 
the two peaks being so inaccessible that the most valiant 
climber has very rarely been able to reach the top. If the ark 
had stopped there, then in the first place, it would not have 
been possible to discharge its freight of living beings on either 
of the two peaks; and in the second place, men and animals 
would have perished with cold before they could have commenced 
the descent. And nevertheless a tradition so extremely old, 
and so generalized, may well have some basis of truth, especially 
that part of it which determines the southern slope of Mt. 
Ararat as the place where the ark finally came to rest and dis- 
charged its precious cargo; for God would doubtless have pro- 
vided a safe landing-place for a vessel which bore within it the 
hopes of the whole world. This we can readily believe; al- 
though the Bible says nothing about the two peaks of Ararat, 
but only that the ark "rested upon the mountains of Ararat," or 
Armenia. Vr. 4. 

But although the ark did finally come to its rest in the 
mountain country of Armenia, or on the sloping sides of Mt. 
Ararat, this is the real difficulty, and it is seemingly a formida- 
ble one: The text does not say that it "rested" there at the 
end of the deluge, but "in the seventh month, and on 17th 
day of the month"; whereas it was two months and thirteen 
days later, "in the tenth month, and on first day of the month, 
that the tops of the mountains were seen." Vr. 5. We have 
here what looks like a hopeless muddle, or an egregious blunder, 
which the infidel sets down to the account of "the mistakes of 



CHAPTER 8: 1—14 103 

Moses," and the commentators, so far as I have been able 
to consult them, either skip the difficulty, or help to confuse 
you with incredible suppositions; and yet its proper and satis- 
factory resolution comes to prove in a surprising manner the 
authenticity of this history and its minute accuracy. After 
days and weeks of prolonged study, testing one by one every 
supposable clew to the enigma, I was surprised to find that 
the "invincible difficulty" resolves itself, when you take the 
record just as it reads, and at the same time correct the com- 
mon misunderstanding of the word "rested." There is nothing 
in the record itself, nor in the use of the Hebrew word nouah, 
to suggest the idea that it came to its final resting place, or that 
it "rested" more than a few moments, a few hours, or possibly 
a few days; the purpose of that mention being subsequently 
given. 

To clear up then this formidable difficulty, and bring out in 
safety the seemingly endangered truth, and at the same time 
vindicate the minute accuracy of this divinely inspired history, 
let us fix in our minds the following data: 1st. The dates 
given are all alike stated in months and days of the 600th 
and 601st years of the life of Noah. 2nd. The ancient year 
consisted of 360 days, or twelve months of thirty days each. 
3rd. As the ark could not rest on all the mountains of Armenia, 
let it be (as the monks and local tradition affirm) that it 
"rested" on the most elevated one of them all, which raises 
its hoary head 8,000 or 10,000 feet above the surrounding moun- 
tains of that mountainous country. 4th. The "rest" of the 
ark on this elevated summit, 16,815 or as others affirm, 17,500 
feet high, was not permanent, as the word is generally assumed 
to mean; the ark merely lodged there, and then descended with 
the receding waters to the convenient place which God had 
prepared for it to discharge its priceless burden, on the sloping 
sides of the mountain, or on the elevated table-lands around 
it. This is self-evident when we consider the date on which the 
ark so "rested," to wit, "the 17th day of the seventh month"; 
precisely five months, or 150 days, after the flood began, when 
"in the 600th year of Noah's life, in the second month and 17th 
day of the month, all the fountains of the great deep were 
broken up and the windows of heaven were opened" (ch. 7: 11); 
—the same 150 days that "the waters prevailed on the earth" 
in their ascendant course (ch. 7: 23), and "after the end of 
which 150 days, the waters began to decrease" (vr. 3); being 
just then at their greatest elevation, — 15 cubits above the high- 
est mountains. Ch. 6: 20. At that precise time, therefore, the 



104 GENESIS 

ark was floating in waters which, on that very day attained 
the limit of their proud dominion, 15 cubits above the lofty 
summit of Mt. Ararat; and it was morally impossible that God 
should allow it to "rest" more than a few minutes, or a few 
hours, on those inaccessible heights; but when Noah and his 
family became fully sensible of its grounding there, it disengaged 
itself from that most perilous situation, and slowly descended 
with the decreasing waters of the flood. 

It seems to me a wonderful thing this mention that the 
waters passed precisely 15 cubits above the tops of the most 
elevated mountains. Why not say 30 cubits? Why not 50, or 
100? They passed 4000 feet above the summit of the lesser 
Ararat, which is that much lower than the other, and probably 
8,000 or 10,000 feet above the tops of the surrounding moun- 
tains, which are like pigmies in the presence of these two un- 
rivaled mountain peaks. But why just 15 cubits or twenty-two 
and a half feet, above the most elevated of them all? Who 
was there to answer for this number so precisely given? It 
was not a guess, surely. It would be unlike anything else in 
the Bible for God to communicate to Noah this special bit of 
information, for him to transmit it to posterity; the more so 
as the fact lay within his own ken; and this furnishes us 
with a solution of the whole difficulty which we are trying to 
unravel. Noah and his family knew perfectly well that their 
ark was 30 cubits in height, and if they did not know that their 
loaded vessel would draw about the half of its height, they 
could easily have informed themselves of the fact by the water- 
line, when they went forth out of it after the flood; and they 
would know, without the help of revelation, that when the 
ark lodged momentarily upon the summit of Ararat (the only 
land on which it could thus have grazed in all Western Asia) 
73 days before the tops of the surrounding mountains were 
seen (vrs. 4, 5), at that very time the waters stood as many 
cubits above the inaccessible summit as their loaded vessel 
drew. What more proof could a reasonable man ask for? for 
without being a ship-builder or a mariner, anybody might know, 
or might find out, that the ark would draw more or less the 
half of its height. And thus it appears to me that "victory is 
plucked out of the hands of defeat," and that out of a seem- 
ingly hopeless tangle, which unbelievers would represent as 
prima facie evidence of falsehood or of foolish guesswork, ia 
drawn an unanswerable proof of the minute accuracy of this 
true history, by means of two circumstances which no writer 
of fiction would ever, or could ever, have invented. 



CHAPTER 8: 1—14 105 

Keeping in view these data, let us fix attention on the fol- 
lowing points, which we cannot remember too well: 1. The 
flood began on the 17th day of the second month of the 600th 
year of the life of Noah. 2. It rained in torrents 40 days and 
40 nights; but the waters continued to advance just the same 
after the rain ceased, in virtue of the first of the two causes 
given by Moses, to wit, the "breaking up of all the fountains 
of the great deep"; and they reached their greatest elevation 
in 150 days. 3. Precisely at this juncture, exactly five months, 
or 150 days, after the flood commenced, on the 17th day of the 
seventh month, the ark grounded and rested momentarily upon 
the most elevated peak in all that part of the world, with which 
no other in all Western Asia can compare, the giant Ararat; 
and the circumstance that it suffered no injury thereby, strik- 
ing in such a way that everybody was conscious of the shock, 
was due to the fact that it did not come down in full weight, 
or strike with full force, but merely grazed or grounded, while 
floating in fifteen cubits of water. 4. Just then, "at the end 
of the 150 days, the waters began to decrease." Ch. 8: 3. "And 
the waters decreased continually," for two months and thirteen 
days more, until "in the tenth month and the first day of the 
month" — seven months and thirteen days after the flood began — 
the waters, having descended 8,000 feet or more, the tops of 
the mountains around were visible; a very different thing from 
seeing, or being able to see, the two elevated peaks of Ararat. 
5. Forty days later, that is to say, on the 263rd day, Noah 
opened the window he had made in the ark, and sent forth a 
raven; which being an unclean bird, and strong of wing, kept 
going back and forth to the roof of the ark, without entering 
it, finding abundant subsistence on the fishes that died by the 
thousand, on dry land, with the descent of the waters. 6. On 
the 270th day, seven days after sending forth the raven (as we 
infer from verse 10, "he waited other seven days"), he let loose 
a dove, in quest of the information the raven failed to bring 
him; to wit, to know whether the "waters were abated from off 
the face of the ground" (vr. 8) : but low-lands, hills and elevated 
table-lands were all as yet sunk in the waters; and the frightened 
dove soon returned to seek admittance beside its mate, "without 
finding rest for the sole of its foot." Vr. 7. 7. Noah waited 
seven days longer, and sent forth the dove a second time (vr. 
10); this was on the 277th day of the deluge: and at the even- 
ing it brought in its beak a fresh olive leaf plucked off; "so 
Noah knew that the waters were abated from off the earth." 
8. On the 284th day, seven days later, when the dove was again 



106 GENESIS 

sent forth, it did not any more return to him. 9. Twenty-nine 
days after this, on the first day of the first month of the 60ist 
year of Noah's life, that is, 313 days after the flood began, 
Noah removed the covering of the ark and "looked, and behold 
the face of the ground was dry" — in those lofty regions. The 
face of the ground on those elevated plains and valleys of 
Armenia, is seven or eight thousand feet above the level of 
the sea; so that the low-lands and extended plains of the far 
off rivers Euphrates and Tigris would still remain buried in 
the waters. 10. Fifty-seven days later, in the second month 
and the 27th day of the month of the 601st year of Noah, 
the earth was well dried (at least in those mountain regions), 
and God commanded Noah to go forth out of the ark. Vrs. 
14—17. 

Here we admire that wise providence of God, which directed 
the ark to those elevated regions of Armenia, as a land of 
promise for Noah and his family, who for more than one year 
had been shut up in the ark: — lands high and healthy at any 
time, but especially healthy after such an inundation as that; 
for . a long while the level lands would be pestilential, and it 
is probable that Noah and his descendants remained some 
years among these mountains, before venturing to descend into 
the more fertile but less healthy lands of the Tigris and Eu- 
phrates. So ch. 11: 2 seems to imply. 

The long patience of this great servant of God is well worthy 
of fixing our attention, based as it was on his triumphant 
faith in him. Noah was not impatient to go out of the ark 
for the space of seven months and fourteen days after the tops 
of the mountains all around were visible; nor for a month 
and twenty-seven days after he had removed the covering of 
the ark and seen for himself that "the face of the earth was 
dried." Vr. 13. God himself had shut him in, and with im- 
perturbable calmness he waited until God himself should open 
the door and give him order to go forth. Nor is less certain 
or less secure that providence of God (though less conspicuous) 
with all his people, which "orders our steps," "directs our 
paths," and "chooses for us the changes" of our mortal life; and 
it is extremely important that we learn in Noah how "good it 
is to hope, and silently (M. S. V.) wait for the salvation of 
Jehovah." Lam. 3: 25, 26. "He that oelieveth shall not make 
haste." Isa. 28: 16. 

God's long delay to bring forth the men and animals out 
of the ark, for nearly two months after it was declared that 
"the face of the ground was dry," places also in very clear re- 



CHAPTER 8: 15—19 107 

lief how improbable in itself is the opinion of those who main- 
tain that the work of creation was consummated in six days 
of twenty-four hours; and that in three days (or seventy-two 
hours) after God had raised the dry land from beneath the 
waters, he placed man there in a paradise of delights. 

Before we pass onward, it will be worth while to state the 
interesting fact that some parts of that immense territory 
which we suppose to have been depressed in order to cause 
the deluge, remain still below the level of the ocean; as if 
when the depressed crust of the earth rose again, some parts 
of it never regained their former elevation. The surface of the 
Dead Sea, called in the Bible the Salt Sea, is 1300 feet below 
the level of the Mediterranean. The Sea of Galilee is at least 
600 feet lower than the ocean level; and the same is true of 
the valley of the Jordan, lying between the two, being from 
600 to 1300 feet below the sea level. The Caspian Sea, situated 
but a short distance to the east of Mt. Ararat, is 80 feet lower 
than the ocean; and what is more, Herodotus, "the Father of 
History" (490 — 409 B. C.) describes the Caspian Sea as then 
covering an extent of territory several times greater than its 
present surface.* 

8: 15 — 19. NOAH AND HIS FAMILY AND THE ANIMALS GO FOETH OUT 
OF THE AEK. (2347 B. C.) 

15 And God spake unto Noah, saying, 

16 Go forth from the ark, thou, and thy wife, and thy sons, and 
thy sons' wives with thee. 

17 Bring forth with thee every living thing that is with thee of 
all flesh, both birds, and cattle, and every creeping thing that creepeth 
upon the earth ; that they may breed abundantly in the earth, and be 
fruitful, and multiply upon the earth. 

18 And Noah went forth, and his sons, and his wife, and his sons' 
wives with him : 

19 every beast, every creeping thing, and every bird, whatsoever 
moveth upon the earth, after their families, went forth out of the 
ark. 

In the 601st year of the life of Noah, "in the second month 
and the 27th day of the month" — one year and ten days after 
the beginning of the deluge, one year and seventeen days after 
Jehovah had shut them in the ark — God opened the door and 
gave orders that he and all that were with him in the ark 
should go forth. To these, both men and animals, he repeated 
the command which he imposed on them from the beginning 
(ch. 1: 22 — 28), and which he repeats to them in ch. 9:1, to 
be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth. It might 
be supposed that it would have been sufficient to leave this to 

*See footnote on p. 109. 



108 GENESIS 

the natural instinct of procreation; but God held it convenient 
to impose it as a positive obligation; and both the word of 
God, and the history of the world, and the moral necessities 
of modern society, make patent the fact that this obligation is 
as binding today as when God laid it upon the creatures at the 
creation and after the flood. 

On the other hand, this command cannot be alleged in 
favor of the illicit union of unmarried persons; because God, 
who has made to the man so incomparable gift as the woman, 
to be his companion and helper, reserves to himself alone the 
right of regulating the relations which should subsist between 
the two; and in his name the apostle says: "Let marriage be 
honorable among all — laymen and clergy alike — and let the 
(conjugal) bed be undefined; for fornicators (on the one hand), 
and adulterers (on the other), God will judge." Heb. 13: 4. 

In fact, men and animals went forth out of the ark upon 
those high lands of Armenia, in some convenient point which 
God had chosen for them, rather than upon the top of some 
mountain; and from thence they were distributed over the de- 
populated earth. 

[Note 17.— On the Deluge in general. The historic certainty 
of the deluge of Noah finds its confirmation in the traditions 
of it which exist among all nations, and in all ages; but with 
such variations and with such a mixture of the fabulous as 
was to be expected. This is very natural, as they all proceeded 
from the trunk of Noah. Some of these traditions preserve the 
very name of Noah, and almost all of them agree in the total 
destruction of men by water, on account of their wickedness, 
and in the salvation of a single family. But the proof of proofs 
for Christian men is the Bible itself, which is the word of 
God, and the frequent mention it makes of the deluge; and 
above all the testimony of Jesus Christ with regard to Noah, 
his ark, the carelessness and irreligion of men in those days, 
and "the flood which came and took them all away." Matt. 24: 
37—39; Luke 17: 26,27. If the testimony of Jesus Christ itself 
is not sufficient to establish the certainty and the historic 
character of all this, pray, for what is it sufficient? He, him- 
self, says: "If I have told you earthly things and ye believe 
not, how shall ye believe if I tell you heavenly things?" John 
3: 12. 

The physical cause of the deluge, as has already been said 
(pp. 97 — 100), was probably, or certainly, the sinking of the 
thin crust of the then inhabited earth, and its submersion be- 



CHAPTER 8: 15—19 109 

ncath the waters of the ocean,* where it had been before (ch. 
1: 9), followed by its gradual elevation to more or less its 
former state; the cataclysm being accompanied, as is usual 
with great earthquakes, by prodigious rains. It has already 
been noted {Note 1, on Chaos, p. 3), that only a thin crust 
of earthy matter separates the surface of the earth on which 
we dwell from the incandescent mass that fills it, which crust 
serves as a non-conductor for its inconceivable heats; some 
calculating that this crust is twenty miles in thickness, and 
others that it is fifty: so that nothing would be easier in the 
hand of God, than that, according as in the work of creation 
he made this submerged crust to rise, by means of internal 
upheavals, from out of the midst of the waters (ch. 1: 9), so 
he should make it to sink temporarily, in the days of Noah, 
and after some months to rise again to its former level. 

With regard to the extent of the deluge, although in ages 
past (by reason of the prevailing ignorance of the phenomena 
of nature, on the one hand, and on the other, of the consequent 
neglect to take account of all the data which the Bible itself 
furnishes us upon these points) it was thought certain that 
the whole world was f covered five miles deep with a mass of 
waters, which came from somewhere, and afterwards went 
away somewhere; the difficulties of this opinion are in our 
day so obvious, and are seen to be so formidable, that among 
persons of intelligence and culture the theory is at present 
almost completely abandoned; all the more since a more care- 
ful examination of the Bible itself makes it evident that it 
only teaches that the flood was universal with respect to man 
who had sinned, and who was to be destroyed, but not with 
respect to the world as we know it. See Note 16, p. 100.] 

♦Since the Spanish original of this paragraph was written, the re- 
searches of the Rev. Dr. George Frederick Wright (of Oberlin College, 
Ohio), in Siberia and the north of Asia, have brought to us new and 
unexpected proofs that the Caspian and Aral Seas were, at a time not 
greatly removed from us, in free connection with the Arctic Ocean, seals 
and other denizens of that ocean being found in them, while "loess" or 
alluvium, deposited on mountains and plains as much as 4000 feet above 
the ocean level, shows conclusively that at that time the crust of the 
earth in that part of the continent of Asia was at least so far depressed 
below the level of the Arctic Ocean, and then raised again. These and 
other proofs which cannot here be detailed, would go to show that in 
the days of Noah, the waters of the flood came at least in part from 
that northern ocean ; I say, "in the days of Noah," because that epoch 
will suit the discoveries made as well as any other, and is In full 
accord with the Bible narrative. — Tr. 



110 GENESIS 

8: 20 — 22. the altak. the promise. (2347 b. c.) 

20 And Noah builded an altar unto Jehovah, and took of every 
clean beast, and of every clean bird, and offered burnt-offerings on the 
altar. 

21 And Jehovah smelled the sweet savor ; and Jehovah said in his 
heart, I will not again curse the ground any more for man's sake, for 
that the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth ; neither 
will I again smite any more everything living, as I have done. 

22 While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold 
and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease. 

We have here our first notice of the altar; although it is 
evident that the sacrifices offered from the days of Abel, or 
from the banishment of Adam and Eve from paradise, must 
have been reduced to ashes upon altars of some sort. This 
altar, since it was "builded," must have been of stone, though 
rude in its form. In Ex. 20: 24, 25, God prescribes "an altar 
of earth" as the altar of his preference; and if not this, he 
says that it must be of rough, unhewn stones. Upon such 
an altar, then, when they went forth out of the ark, Noah of- 
fered whole burnt offerings of every clean animal and of every 
clean bird. In the Levitical Law, a "clean animal" signifies 
one of whose flesh it was lawful to eat (Lev. 11:47); and 
here it probably refers to the still more reduced number of 
these which were proper to be offered in sacrifice to God; be- 
cause ch. 9:3 expressly sanctioned the eating of any and every 
kind of animal food. 

"Jehovah smelled the sweet savor." As the smell of burning 
flesh and bone is, on the contrary, most ungrateful to the 
sense of smell, this phrase, so often used in the Bible, and which 
occurs here for the first time, is very significant. The* Hebrew 
says "a smell of rest"; as if He, who "delighteth in mercy" 
(Mic. 7: 18), satiated and even wearied of the terrible triumph 
of avenging justice over a world of proud, impious and un- 
bridled sensualists, craved rest, and smelled with supreme 
pleasure and satisfaction the odor of sacrifice, which, as amends 
rendered to offended justice, caused his wrath to "rest. How 
beautiful is this thought, and how full of evangelical unction 
is this conception of the ancient bloody sacrifices, which we 
find yonder in the dawn of the divine revelation! Well has 
Moses said with regard to that God, his own and ours, who 
"so loved the world that he gave his own begotten Son" for 
its redemption, that "Jehovah smelled the sweet savor; and 
Jehovah said in his heart: I will not again curse the ground 
any more for man's sake;" who had now showed himself to 
be incorrigibly wicked. When again God made a sacrifice on a 



CHAPTER 8 : 20—22 111 

grand scale to divine justice, it was that of his own Son, "upon 
whom Jehovah laid the iniquity of us all." Isa. 53: 6. This 
explains, at least in part, that mystery of Isa. 53: 10, "It pleased 
Jehovah to bruise him, he hath put him to grief." In view of 
this, prefigured by that "sweet savor," God said that he would 
suffer the wickedness of men, and bless them, in virtue of that 
sacrifice; and that he would not for their sakes again disturb 
the ordinary course of nature. But not on this account is the 
arm of divine justice paralyzed, that at last, in the consumma- 
tion of the ages, he should not destroy the world of the un- 
godly, — the living and the dead — with a deluge of fire; that 
in its stead "he may extend (once more) the heavens, and 
lay (again) the foundations of the earth" (Isa. 51: 16); "creat- 
ing new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteous- 
ness." 2 Pet. 3: 7, 10, 13; Isa. 65: 17—19; 66: 22. 

[Note 18. — On the miraculous character of the Creation and 
the Deluge. There are Christians, and very sincere ones, who 
look with eyes askance upon every attempt to diminish the 
sphere of the miraculous in the Bible. For them, God com- 
manded, and in the opening and shutting of an eye were brought 
to pass successively the stupendous changes detailed in the 
six days work of creation — ordinary days of twenty-four hours — 
as related in the first chapter of Genesis: and in the days of 
Noah, God commanded, and waters came from somewhere (or 
were created for this purpose), which, covered the whole world 
five or six miles deep; and when God again commanded, they 
withdrew, nobody knows where (or were uncreated), in order 
to relieve the world of their presence; and nothing less than 
this will meet their idea of a miracle. And with regard to 
the work of creation, they ask: "Why is it not more simple 
and easy to believe that God created the world in statu quo, 
such as we find it today, or such as Adam found it in the day 
that he was made, 144 hours after God began the work of 
creation? Besides the Scriptural and unanswerable reasons al- 
ready given in the first chapter, it will be sufficient to assign 
here this comprehensive reason: because God cannot act a lie. 
If he had created the crust of the earth, as it is today, with 
the evident signs of the action of fire, on the one hand, and 
of water, on the other; with rocks come forth from the bowels 
of the earth in molten form, and sedimentary rocks deposited 
in strata, in the depths of the rivers and seas, with leaves, 
wood, fishes and shells of innumerable kinds incrusted in them; 
if he had made whole mountains composed in the larger part 
of marine shells, and should scatter with full hands and 



112 GENESIS 

by the million (as I have seen them on the slopes of the Andes) 
round limestone nodules, having within each of them a delicate 
sea-shell — principally ammonites; and if he should put leaves, 
shells, houghs and even trunks of trees in the mines of mineral 
coal, created just as they stand, hundreds and even thousands 
of feet beneath the surface of the earth, out of pure caprice; 
what would this be but to act a lie, with the sole purpose and 
effect of confounding and misleading his intelligent creatures in 
their investigation of his works? No; God could not create the 
world just as it is, without writing lies on every page of the 
book of nature! He therefore did not do it. We believe in 
the miracle of the Deluge and in the miracle of Creation, but not 
in the above said form; and we believe in the coming miracle 
of the Second Creation — the most stupendous miracle of the 
ages, which is almost entirely lost sight of, or ignored, by 
the larger part of Christian people, in our day; though the 
angels, yonder in heaven, wait for it with holy and almost 
impatient curiosity (1 Pet. 1:12); though the saints in glory 
wait for it with earnest desire (Rom. 8:18, 23 — 25); although 
the material creation, groaning beneath the curse of man's sin, 
waits, with outstretched neck, the time of its coming (Rom. 
g. 19 — 22); and Christ the Lord, "seated on his Father's throne" 
waits for the time of its advent (Heb. 10: 13) as the day of 
his glory and his power, "the day of the gladness of his heart" 
and of "the marriage supper of the Lamb." Rev. 3: 21; Matt. 
19: 28; 25: 31; Rev. 19: 7, 9. Christian people strangely over- 
look the fact that that day is as future to "the man Christ Jesus," 
as it is to us.] 

CHAPTER IX. 

VES. 1 — 7. THE DOMINION OF THE NEW WORLD, IS GIVEN TO NOAH 
AND HIS SONS, WITH THE LIBERTY TO EAT OF EVERY LTVING THING, 
EXCEPTING ONLY THE BLOOD; WHICH, AS A SACRIFICE FOR SIN, 
WAS TO BE HELD SACRED TO GOD. (2347 B. C.) 

1 And God blessed Noah and his sons, and said unto them, Be 
fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth. 

2 And the fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every 
beast of the earth, and upon every bird of the heavens : with all 
wherewith the ground teemeth,* and all the fishes of the sea, into your 
hand are they delivered. 

3 Every moving thing that liveth shall be food for you; as the 
green herb have I given you all. 

4 But flesh with the life thereof, which is the blood thereof, shall 
ye not eat. 

5 And surely your blood, the blood of your lives, will I require; 

•if. S. V. all that creeps upon the ground (= reptiles). 



CHAPTER 9: 1—7 113 

at the hand of every beast will I require it : and at the hand of man, 
even at the hand of every man's brother, will I require the life of man. 

6 Whoso shedd'eth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed : 
for in the image of God made he man. 

7 And you, be ye fruitful, and multiply; bring forth abundantly 
in the earth, and multiply therein. 

This was a new beginning of the race; not as before in a 
single pair without children, but in a single pair with three 
married sons, but without children; and these, taught by pain- 
ful experience as to the terrible effects of sin, in the past his- 
tory of 1600 years, and solemnly warned by the terrific judg- 
ment which God has just brought on that world of sinners. 
So to say, God begins here, with the Flood, a new experiment, 
the third (see p. 87), with regard to the irremediable wicked- 
ness of the fallen human race. It might well have been said: 
"With such a lesson as the last, of couree this experiment 
will be successful!" But Jehovah had already said that the 
race was totally corrupt, and that no cood thing could be hoped 
from it. Ch. 8: 21. Comp. ch. 6: 3, 5 — 7. God blessed this new 
father of the race and his three sons, and he gave them the 
sovereignty over all he had created, as before he had given it to 
Adam. Ch. 1; 28. 

It is not to be believed (as we have already seen in the case 
of Abel and his sheep, p. 51), that prior to this there existed 
a prohibition against the use of animal food; although it is 
probable that just and temperate men used it with much modera- 
tion; as was the usage of the patriarchs, and still is of the 
nomadic tribes of the East. But now, and without the distinc- 
tions, which the Mosaic law subsequently imposed, of clean and 
unclean animals, God authorized the use of any kind of flesh 
that men might desire, but imposing a very powerful restric- 
tion in regard to the use of the blood. We see here that from 
the times of the deluge, the blood was constituted a most sacred 
thing, devoted exclusively to God, to make expiation on the 
altar of sacrifice for the sins of men. In Lev. 17: 11 — 14, this 
is set forth with more extension, in this form: "For the life 
of the flesh is in the blood; and I have given it to you upon 
the altar to make atonement for your souls; for it is the blood 
that maketh atonement, by reason of the life." When the 
blood of "the Lamb of God who taketh away the sin of the 
world" had been shed, this prohibition ceased naturally, together 
with the reason for it. The apostles, nevertheless, as a con- 
cession to the scruples of the Jewish Christians, ordained its 
continuance (Acts 15:1 — 29); a concession which likewise of 
itself fell into disuse with the cessation of the occasion for it — 



114 GENESIS 

the disappearance of Judaic Christianity (Acts 15: 21; Rom. 
14: 13); according to the express testimony of the great Augus- 
tine, in the 5th century. Aug. contra Faust, lib. 32, chap. 13. 
See Bingham's Ecclesiastical Antiquities, Book XVII. Ch. V. 
Sec. 15; and the Note of Bishop Amat on Gen. 9: 4. 

Passing at once from the blood of animals to that of man, 
God declared that he would himself demand, both of man and 
beast, a strict account of human blood violently shed. See Ex. 
21: 14, 28 and Deut. 21: 1—9. 

The death penalty has been atrociously abused in almost all 
the countries of the world, especially in past times; but this 
does not justify its abolition in cases of premeditated homicide; 
and neglect or unwillingness to apply to the criminal the pain 
of death, ordained by God himself, the author of life, always 
tends to the enormous increase of crime, and gives loose rein 
to private and personal vengeance. The lauded "inviolability 
of human life," when well understood, means to say that the 
life of a human being is a thing so sacred, that he who takes 
it without just cause, must pay for it with his own, in amends 
to outraged justice, both human and divine. See also Num. 
35: 33. 

9: 8 — 17. THE EVERLASTING COVENANT 1 , MADE WITH ALL MEN AND 

all animals: and the sign of it. (2347 b. c.) 

8 And God spake unto Noah, and to his sons with him, saying, 

9 And I, behold, I establish my covenant with you, and with your 
seed after you ; 

10 and with every living creature* that is with you, the birds, 
the cattle, and every beast of the earth with you ; of all that go out 
of the ark, even every beast of the earth. 

11 And I will establish my covenant with you ; neither shall all 
flesh be cut off any more by the waters of the flood; neither shall 
there any more be a flood to destroy the earth. 

12 And God said, This is the token of the covenant which I make 
between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for 
perpetual generations : 

13 I do set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a token of a 
covenant between me and the earth. • 

14 And it shall come to pass, when I bring a cloud over the earth, 
that the bow shall be seen in the cloud, 

15 and I will remember my covenant, which is between me and 
you and every living creature* of all flesh ; and the waters shall no 
more become a flood to destroy all flesh. 

16 And the bow shall be in the cloud ; and I will look upon it, 
that I may remember the everlasting covenant between God and every 
living creature of all flesh that is upon the earth. 

17 And God said unto Noah, This is the token of the covenant 
which I have established between me and all flesh that is upon the 
earth. 

l*Hel. living soul.] 



CHAPTER 9: 8—17 115 

A catastrophe so great as the deluge of Noah would neces- 
sarily have the effect of shaking violently the confidence of 
men in the established order of nature, or rather of destroying 
it; and thus it would promote indolence and idleness in the in- 
fant society, filling it, likewise, with doubt, apprehension and 
terror. This was a sufficient reason why God should celebrate 
with them a special covenant — an everlasting covenant with men 
and beasts — that he would never more destroy all flesh by the 
waters of a flood. To confound this with the former covenant — 
the covenant of redemption — which God established with Noah 
120 years before, and with Abraham subsequently, would mani- 
fest great ignorance of the affairs of divine redemption; the 
occasion, the subjects, and the matter of the two being entirely 
different. 

God constituted the rainbow a sign of this covenant, probably 
making it to appear in a cloud on the afternoon of that notable 
day; on the supposition that all this followed the sacrifice 
which Noah offered, and the giving of the divine promise re- 
lated in the preceding chapter. Chapter 9 ought to have 
commenced with vr. 20 of chapter 8, and have ended with the 
17th verse of this, as it all treats of the same matter. The reader 
will understand that the division of chapters and verses forms 
no part of the inspired text, but was adopted in modern times 
to facilitate the citation of the different parts of the Bible. The 
rainbow, of course, was well known before this; but thencefor- 
ward God made it a beautiful and interesting sign (which never 
loses its charm for men) of this transaction and covenant. As 
to what is said of God's looking upon it, in order to remember 
the covenant he had made, that is a mere accommodation to the 
manner of speech of an infantile people, and is a strong proof 
of the extreme age of this account, which Moses, perhaps found 
preserved in writing, or by verbal tradition, and adapted it 
to this place in his history. In recent years there have been 
unearthed, among the ruins of Babylon and Assyria, more than 
one story of the creation, the deluge, etc., written on tablets 
or cylinders of baked clay, which bear a notable resemblance 
to this, and to other early histories of the book of Genesis; 
which gives the appearance of plausibility to the supposition that 
Moses also found in his day written documents or verbal tra- 
ditions of a trustworthy character, on the deluge, on the crea- 
tion, and on the temptation and fall of man; all of which is 
found preserved, in Babylonian form, in the collections of 
tablets and cylinders of baked clay, that have been made in 
late years. 



116 GENESIS 

On the use and signification of the expression "living soul," 
translated "living creature" in vrs. 10 and 15, consult Note 4, 
page 15. 

9: 18, 19. THE THREE SONS OF NOAH, PROGENITORS OF THE WHOLE 
HUMAN RACE. (2347 B. C.) 

18 And the sons of Noah, that went forth from the ark, were Shem, 
and Ham, and Japheth : and Ham is the father of Canaan. 

19 These three were the sons of Noah : and of these was the 
whole earth overspread. 

This clear and emphatic declaration that all the earth was 
peopled by the three sons of Noah — a declaration repeated in 
ch. 10: 32, at the conclusion of the narrative of the distribution 
of the descendants of the three, after the deluge — is a peremp- 
tory affirmation that there was on earth no other human race, 
nor any remains of the Adamic race which had escaped the 
waters of the deluge, to take part in peopling the unoccupied 
earth, and in producing the different races which now occupy 
it. "(God) hath made of one blood (or race) all the nations 
of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, having determined 
their times appointed and the bounds of their habitation." Paul, 
in Acts 17: 26. 

9: 20 — 27. the shameful sin of noah. ham, the father of 
the canaanites. blessings upon shem and japheth. a most 
notable prophecy. (Of uncertain date.) 

20 And Noah began to be a husbandman, and planted a vineyard : 

21 and he drank of the wine, and was drunken ; and he was un- 
covered within his tent. 

22 And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his 
father, and told his two brethren without. 

23 And Shem and Japheth took a garment, and laid it upon both 
their shoulders, and went backward, and covered the nakedness of their 
father : and their faces were backward, and they saw not their 
father's nakedness. 

24 And Noah awoke from his wine, and knew what his youngest 
son had done unto him. 

25 And he said 

Cursed be Canaan ; 

A servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren. 

26 And he said, 

Blessed be Jehovah, the God of Shem; 
And let Canaan be his servant. 

27 God enlarge Japheth, 

And let him dwell in tents of Shem; 
And let Canaan be his servant. 

The shameful fall of the venerable patriarch Noah is greatly 
to be deplored. After he had passed the six-hundredth year of 
his life, had escaped the dangers of the deluge and been con- 



CHAPTER 9: 20—27 117 

stituted the new head of the human family, and the depository 
of the promises of human redemption, he, who had so long 
"walked with God," planted a vineyard, and drank of the wine, 
and became drunken, and lay uncovered within his tent. It 
is useless to attempt to palliate his sin with vain and empty 
excuses. God has not caused this history to he written in 
his word in order that we may seek imaginary excuses and 
apologies for Noah, hut that we may be admonished and warned 
by his example. No experience of the mercies of God in the 
past can free us from exposure to other and sorer temptations in 
the future. Every period of life has its peculiar trials; and 
even "the hoary head," found long time "in the way of right- 
eousness" (Prov. 16: 31), may dishonor itself with the sin 
and dire disgrace of drunkenness! "Very insidious is the vice 
of strong drink. It is probable that Noah did not fall sud- 
denly, hut that little by little he went on increasing the quan- 
tity and frequency of his cups, until that happened which is 
related. In old age, the season in which the vigor and en- 
thusiasm of youth and of mature life are dying out, those who 
are accustomed to the use of strong drink are very prone to 
supply with the artificial stimulus the lack of what is natural. 
It is a good thing to avoid falling into temptation, whether in 
youth, or in maturity, or in old age, by total abstinence from 
intoxicating liquors. "Wine is a mocker, strong drink is rag- 
ing; and he that is deceived thereby is not wise." Prov. 20: 1. 
Well has the Scripture said to us: "Let him that thinketh he 
standeth take heed lest he fall." 1 Cor. 10: 12. Surely Noah 
had good cause to believe that he was standing firm; and yet 
he fell! 

In this narrative Ham is not once mentioned without the ad- 
dition of the words "the father of Canaan"; a clear indication that 
the curse which for some unexplained reason fell, not on him 
hut on his son Canaan, had nothing whatever to do with the 
Africans (whom alone some persons would see in this prophecy), 
but with an Asiatic race — the Canaanites, whose land was taken 
from them and given to the descendants of Abraham; and 
the remnants of them, those who remained in the country, 
were reduced to a form of slavery. The reason for this we can- 
not explain, nor is it necessary that we should. It pleased God 
"who visits the iniquity of the fathers upon their children," to 
punish this sin of the father in the descendants of one of his 
sons; and as the Infinite Reason cannot act arbitrarily, we 
content ourselves with this. God has just cause for all that he 
does, or fails to do. 



118 GENESIS 

"Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father"; 
and instead of covering him, he went to tell it to his brothers 
who were outside the tent; and they, walking backward, with 
a garment spread upon the shoulders of the two, covered him, 
without looking upon the nakedness of their father. The be- 
havior of Ham on this occasion was surely not a casual thing, 
but marks a distinctive trait in his profane and sensual char- 
acter — the only one that is related of him. We know from vr. 
24 that Ham was the youngest son of Noah, as Shem was the 
oldest. Ch. 10: 21. 

"On waking from his wine," Noah knew what his younger 
son had done to him, and three several times he pronounced 
sentence of servitude upon Canaan, the son of Ham. For what 
cause this particular son was to bear the malediction, due to 
the act of his father, we are not able to conjecture; we only 
know that in point of fact it was fulfilled in the sentence of 
servitude formally pronounced by Joshua upon the Gibeonites, 
and others of the descendants of Canaan, who by craft and 
subtility saved themselves from extermination (Josh. 9: 23 — 27); 
a sentence imposed likewise at a later date, by David and 
Solomon, upon the remnant of the Canaanites found in Israel in 
their day. 1 Kings 9 : 20, 21. In the following chapter, the 
sacred writer takes especial pains to tell us who were the 
sons of Canaan, and what were the boundaries of their terri- 
tory; as if to give us to understand unequivocally that the 
sons of Canaan were all Asiatics, and not one of them an 
African. It is therefore an inexcusable error and an unjus- 
tifiable and hurtful misinterpretation of prophecy to infer (as 
some have done) from the sin of Ham and the curse pronounced 
upon Canaan, that from ancient times God has consigned the 
African (as the race of Ham) to perpetual servitude. Directly 
opposite to this is the truth. The race of Ham, in ancient times, 
was the most active, enterprising, intelligent, rich and power- 
ful of the races of the world. It is worth while here to note 
that the Babylonians and the Egyptians, the most powerful 
of the nations of antiquity, and the Tyrians, the richest, and 
also the most intrepid of navigators, and the inhabitants of 
Carthage, in North Africa, the powerful enemy and rival of 
Rome, were all of the race of Ham; although it is true that 
the races and tribes of Central and South Africa have descended 
likewise from some degenerate branches of the same family. 
But these had nothing to do with Canaan, upon whom, or rather 
upon whose descendants, the said malediction fell. 

It is worth noting, as we pass, that the characters of the 



CHAPTER 9: 20—27 119 

fathers seem to have been perpetuated in their descendants. 
However great in other times were the nations descended from 
Ham, they have in general been profane and sensual like him- 
self; while the descendants of Shem and Japheth have been 
distinguished by the more serious traits which ennoble and 
preserve nations; races marked by the reverent modesty of their 
fathers. 

The occasion of this malediction was likewise that of bless- 
ing upon Shem and Japheth. The form of the words is poetic, 
as is the song of Lamech (ch. 4: 23), and should be interpreted 
as such. It is also a prophecy, in which is sketched in bold 
outlines the general history and character of these three great 
families of men. The blessing of Shem is well worthy of fixing 
our attention. Noah, instead of blessing Shem, blesses Jehovah 
rather, as "the God of Shem"; adding, "and Canaan shall be his 
servant." In Hebrew the word signifies either "servant to him" 
or "servant to them." But as Shem only is mentioned, "of 
them" is hardly admissible, unless we understand it of Shem 
and his God; according to the words of Joshua to the Gibeonites: 
"Now therefore, ye are cursed, and there shall never fail to be 
of you bondmen, both hewers of wood and drawers of water 
for the house of my God" (Josh. 9: 23); and still later, after 
the Babylonish Captivity, they were called "Nethinim"=Temple- 
servants, given to the Levites to perform the menial work of 
the Temple, in their stead. Ezra 2: 43; 8: 20. Canaan there- 
fore was conquered by Israel, and the remnants of its seven 
nations were put to "task work" (Judg. 1: 28, 30, 33), and were 
made servants of the Congregation, and perpetual servants of the 
Tabernacle and the Temple. 

The Semitic race has been par excellence the religious race; 
and as Ham is repeatedly called "the father of Canaan," so 
in ch. 10: 21, Shem is called "the father of Eber," or of the 
Hebrews; which was his principal badge of glory and distinc- 
tion; in whose tents, in the lapse of ages, God literally came 
to dwell ("Immanuel, God with us" Matt. 1: 23), if we under- 
stand that in vr. 27, God is the subject of both propositions; 
or if we change the subject, it will signify that Japheth would 
come to dwell in the tents of Shem; not however to rob them, 
but to profit by his knowledge of the true God, as many of 
the ancient prophecies declare (Isa. 2: 3; 60: 2, 3; Zech. 8: 23); 
and Jesus lays emphasis upon the declaration that "salvation is 
of the Jews." John 4: 22. In this sense, the fulfilment has 
been no less notable than the prophecy; for in fact, with the 
Christianization of the European nations, all of them descended 



120 GENESIS 

from Japheth, he has come to dwell in the tents of Shem and 
to partake of his blessings; while Israel has separated himself 
from those blessings through his unbelief. Rom. 11: 20. It was 
blessing enough for Shem that Jehovah was his God, and that 
"in Abraham and in his seed all the families of the earth were 
to be blessed." Gen. 12: 3; 28: 14. 

The blessing of Japheth was: "God shall enlarge Japheth and 
he shall dwell in the tents of Shem; and Canaan shall be his 
servant." In point of fact, Japheth (the word signifies enlarge- 
ment) has been enlarged more than any other of the three. 
The European nations, with all their great colonies, now na- 
tions, in both Americas, in Australia, in South Africa and in 
the islands of the sea, are all of his lineage; and all of them, 
without a single exception, profess the religion of the God of 
Shem. In the following chapter we shall see, likewise, that 
the Hindoos, the Chinese, the Japanese, the Tartars also, and 
some of the nations of Western Asia, as the Armenians and 
the Medes, are probably of the family of Japheth. 

It is a remarkable thing that the Hebrew leaves indeterminate 
whether it was God who should dwell in the tents of Shem, 
or Japheth; and in such cases, when either of the two interpre- 
tations gives a perfectly legitimate and right sense, and is in 
full accord with the analogy of Scripture, it is better to accept 
both together, rather than either of the two to the exclusion of 
the other; seeing that the ambiguity must have been as patent 
to the writer as to us. Here then we have an extremely old 
prophecy, whose wonderful fulfilment is worthy to call the 
attention of all, and may well serve to convince unbelievers on 
the one hand, if they are thinking men, and on the other to 
awaken the gratitude and praises of believing men. 

Canaan always comes to occupy the place of servant to the 
rest. As Ham was emphatically excluded from the blessings, 
it may be well understood that the Babylonians, the Egyptians, 
the Tyrians, etc., although great in their day, were purely 
worldly peoples; and besides this, they were (like the Canaan- 
ites) of the most impure and shameful habits; and their glory 
and riches and science and power have perished with them; 
while their miserable and degraded remnants, unknown now in 
Babylon and Tyre, are in Egypt reduced to the level of serfs; 
and their continent (that which is theirs par excellence — Africa), 
has been for ages a slave market for the more advanced and 
powerful nations; — the foreign African slave trade, however, be- 
ing happily abolished in our day. 

It will be asked, perhaps, why God was so hard on the sin 



CHAPTER 9: 28, 29 121 

of Ham, without even condemning the sin of Noah, or much 
less punishing him on account of it. I reply, 1st, because God 
well knows that believing men, who search his word, do not need 
that a particular act should be condemned and censured in or- 
der to understand that it is sinful and displeasing to him; 
and 2nd, as to punishment, because he does not deal with his 
believing people as a King, who dispenses even-handed justice 
to all alike (his season for kingly judgment and justice has 
not yet come, John 12:47); but as a loving and pardoning 
Father, who does not punish, but only chastens his blood-bought 
children for their correction. If the reader would know and 
enjoy this priceless distinction, he must betake himself, with 
penitence and faith, to the shelter of the Cross. See Note 
26, on the sins of God's ancient saints. 

9: 28, 29. the death of noah. (2006 B. C.) 

28 And Noah lived after the flood three hundred and fifty years. 

29 And all the days of Noah were nine hundred and fifty years ; 
and he died. 

But the longest and most honored life must necessarily come 
to an end; unless "the day of redemption" should sooner dawn. 
Eph. 4: 30; John 21: 23. Noah lived 350 years after the del- 
uge, and died, according to the common chronology, two years 
before Abraham was born; being the contemporary of Terah, the 
father of Abraham, for 128 years; and the sum total of his days 
was 950 years. 

Adam, 930; Jared, 962; Methuselah, 969; Noah, 950. 

CHAPTER X. 

VE. 1. THE SONS AND DESCENDANTS OF NOAH, AND THEIB DISSEMI- 
NATION THROUGHOUT THE WORLD. 

1 Now these are the generations of the sons of Noah, namely, of 
Shem, Ham, and Japheth : and unto them were sons born after the 
flood. 

As by the particular providence of God, our first parents had 
no children until after the trial which terminated so disastrously 
for them and for their posterity, so likewise by his providence, 
the sons of Noah, being all married, had no children until after 
they came forth out of the ark. Ch. 10: 1. Shem, the oldest 
of the three, had his son Arphaxad, in the line of the promise, 
"two years after the deluge." Ch. 11: 10. 



122 GENESIS 

10: 2 5. THE LINEAGE OF JAPHETH. 

2 The sons of Japheth : Gomer, and Magog, and Madai, and Javan, 
and Tubal, and Meshecb, and Tiras. 

3 And the sons of Gomer : Ashkenaz, and Riphath, and Togarmah. 

4 And the sons of Javan : Elishah, and Tarshish, Kittim, and 
Dodanim. 

5 Of these were the isles* of the nations dividedf in their lands, 
every one after his tongue, after their families, in their nations. 

♦Or, coast lands. [fM. S. V., peopled.] 

Several of these names are plurals, and are the names of 
nations and countries; and, according to Hebrew usage, it may 
be understood that only some of them are the names of individual 
sons of Japheth, or that none of them are; giving us to under- 
stand that, in a broad sense, the following peoples descended 
from him. Notwithstanding this, "the sons of Gomer" and "the 
sons of Javan," although in Hebrew they are the names of nations, 
seem to indicate that those so designated were individual sons of 
Japheth, who left their names to their respective peoples and races. 

"Gomer" is mentioned once in Ezek. 38: 6, in connection with 
"the house of Togarmah" (his son, according to vr. 3), "with 
all their hordes," as warlike peoples, "from the distant parts 
of the north;" it being understood that for Ezekiel and his con- 
temporaries, the Black or Euxine Sea was very far to the north. 
Of Riphath we know nothing with certainty. The Armenians and 
Georgians claim that they are of "the house of Togarmah" 
In modern Jewish speech, Germany bears the name of Ashkenaz; 
and there is not a little resemblance between this name and 
Scandinavia, which embraces the territory of Sweden, Norway 
and Denmark. It is probable that the descendants of Gomer 
were disseminated towards the N. W., as far as the Atlantic 
Ocean. From them it is supposed that the Celtic races of Great 
Britain and the West of Europe descended. 

Magog, in Ezek. 38: 2, is represented as "the land of Gog, 
the prince of Rosh (= Russia), Meshech ( = Moscovia?) and Tu- 
bal;" Meshech and Tubal being two others of the sons of Japheth. 
It is natural, therefore, that we should associate these three, 
as peopling the great Russia; and before that, in the days of 
Ezekiel, the neighboring parts of the Black and Caspian Seas. 

Madai is the same as the Medes, or Media, situated to the 
north of Elam, the ancient Persia, and on the south of the Cas- 
pian Sea. 

Javan is in Hebrew the ordinary name of Greece (although 
without the clear demarcations which the name now carries 
with it), whose descendants were Elishah (=probably the 
Greeks strictly speaking); Tars ftisft— Tartessus, in Spain; Kit- 



CHAPTER 10: 6— 14 123 

Urn (="Coast-dwellers"), embracing Cyprus and the other Greek 
islands, and sometimes its use extends as far as Italy (Num. 
24: 24; Dan. 11: 30); and Z)ocZamm=probably Rhodanim, or the 
island of Rhodes; but others understand it as=Dardani, the 
inhabitants of Troy or Troas; of whom the Romans claimed to 
be descendants. 

Tiras, the seventh "son" of Japheth,=probably the dreaded 
Thracians of ancient times, to the west of the Black Sea. 

It is absolutely necessary to keep in mind that neither Moses 
nor Ezekiel had maps, like ourselves, to fix the exact boundaries 
of the nations, nor did the nations have the exact boundaries 
they have now; but the list given embraces the vast re- 
gions to the north of Media and Armenia and Central Asia, and 
the northern part of Asia Minor, and all the lands to the north 
of the Mediterranean Sea. From Media and Central Asia (Turk- 
estan) it is probable that the race of Japheth passed to the 
east and south of Asia, and peopled the great China and In- 
dia. 

"Of these (the sons of Japheth), the coasts of the nations 
were peopled" (Heb. divided). In the beginnings of colonization, 
men established themselves first near the sea, and gradually, with 
the increase of population, they moved inland, following first the 
course of navigable rivers. For this reason the Hebrew does 
not distinguish between "coasts" and "islands." But the "is- 
lands of the nations" would here be manifestly improper. This 
is said of the sons of Japheth only, and seemingly gives us to 
understand that the Japhethites established themselves along the 
northern coasts of the Mediterranean Sea, the coasts of the 
Black Sea, and other maritime lands; — a sure indication of 
that spirit of enterprise and of sea-faring life which has always 
distinguished the race of Japheth. Add to these the two Ameri- 
cas, Australia, South Africa, etc., etc., and we exclaim: Truly 
"God has enlarged Japheth!" Without the Spirit of prophecy, 
how could Noah have known all this? And indeed how could 
any writer of the Old Testament, all of whom died before any 
part of the race of Japheth rose to distinction? 

10: 6 — 14. THE LINEAGE OF HAM. 

6 And the sons of Ham : Cush, and Mizraim, and Put, and Canaan. 

7 And the sons of Cush : Seba, and Havilah, and Sabtah, and 
Raamah, and Sabteca ; and the sons of Raamah : Sheba, and Dedan. 

8 And Cush begat Nimrod : he began to be a mighty one in the 
earth. 

9 He was a mighty hunter before Jehovah : wherefore it is said, 
Like Nimrod a mighty hunter before Jehovah. 



124 GENESIS 

10 And the beginning of his kingdom was Babel, and Erech, and 
Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar. 

11 Out of that land he went forth into Assyria,* and builded 
Nineveh, and Rehoboth-Ir, and Calah. 

12 and Resen between Nineveh and Calah (the same is the great 
city). 

13 And Mizraim begat Ludim and Anamim, and Lehabim, and 
Naphtuhim, 

14 and Pathrusim, and Casluhim (whence went forth the Philis- 
tines), and Caphtorim. 

*Or, went forth Asshur. 

The four sons of Ham, the immediate branches of his stock, 
were Gush, Mizraim, Put, and Canaan. 

The sons of Gush were Seba, Havilah, Sabtah, Raamah and 
Sabteca, together with the two sons of Raamah, Sheba and De- 
dan. Part of them went to Africa, seemingly by the Strait of 
Babel-mandeb, and gave name to Ethiopia, or Cush, in Africa; 
Seba (or his descendants), according to our best maps, es- 
tablished himself to the south of Egypt, in what is now Nubia 
or Abyssinia. With less certainty Sabtah, Havilah and Sabteca 
are located by Bible geographers on the African coast of the 
Red Sea and the Strait of Babel-mandeb, as far south as the 
Indian Ocean. Raamah, with his two sons, Sheba and Dedan, 
is located in the eastern part of Arabia, as far as the Persian 
Gulf and beyond that also, along its western coast. It is im- 
possible to fix these limits with any certainty; because the 
Cushites were scattered over the immense area of the peninsula 
of Arabia, including that of Mount Sinai, where Moses found his 
Cushite (or Ethiopian) wife. Num. 12: 1. Some would locate 
Sheba, the Cushite, in Arabia Felix, not far from the Red Sea, 
and maintain that that was the famous, rich and powerful 
kingdom of Sheba, whose queen visited Solomon. But others, 
perhaps with more reason, concede this honor to Sheba, son of 
Jocktan, of the race of Shem. Vr. 28. What makes the sub- 
ject the more difficult is that the Abyssinians (who surely belong 
to the ancient Ethiopia), since before their conversion to Chris- 
tianity (such as it is), and while they yet professed Judaism, 
have sustained by invariable tradition until today, that the 
"Queen of Sheba," was of their race, and was converted to 
Judaism by King Solomon, who made her one of his many wives, 
and by whom he had a son, called Menilek, whom she carried 
back with her on her return, and, having converted her kingdom 
to Judaism, left him as her successor; — a line, which, accord- 
ing to them, has not changed till the present day. It is un- 
deniable that the religion of the Abyssinians is a grotesque mix- 
ture of Judaism and Christianity. According to them, there- 



CHAPTER 10: 6—14 125 

fore, the famous queen was a Cushite and an African. It Is 
almost certain that all the Cushites passed from Arabia to 
Africa by the Strait of Babel-mandeb; and so it is often dif- 
ficult to determine whether the Cushites who are spoken of in a 
given passage are Arabians or Ethiopians — reserving this name 
for the Cushite Africans. 

Cush likewise was the father of Nimrod, who was "the first to 
become a mighty one in the earth"; — which is the real mean- 
ing of the Hebrew phrase "began to be"; it surely does not 
mean to say that he began, but could not finish. Comp. Acts 
15: 14; 1 Pet. 4: 17. He was the first of those ambitious spirits 
who founded empires for themselves, subduing tribes and na- 
tions, in order to make himself great. The fame of this "hunter" 
of men lasted a long while, and was widely extended, and he 
became celebrated in verse and in song; although he is not 
mentioned again in the Bible, outside of the circumstance that 
the prophet Micah, who flourished in the days of Isaiah, speaks 
of Assyria "as the land of Nimrod" (Mic. 5: 6); which is con- 
sidered evidence sufficient to determine that it was Nimrod, 
and not Asshur, who founded the city of Nineveh. Eighteen 
miles south Of the supposed ruins of Nineveh, are also found 
the ruins of a place which still bears the name of "Nimroud." 
Davis' Dictionary of the Bible, Article Nineveh. In any case, 
it is settled by the testimony of Genesis that Nineveh was founded 
by colonists who came from Babylon; and this the recently 
deciphered monuments of Assyria place beyond a doubt. But 
whoever may have been the founder of Nineveh, it is certain 
that the city passed over to the dominion of the sons of As- 
shur, as it was the capital of the great Assyrian empire. 

"Nimrod a mighty hunter before Jehovah" passed into a prov- 
erb, or it figures here as a line of some heroic song of those 
ancient times; and the citation clearly demonstrates that the 
name "Jehovah" dovetailed thus into a proverb, or into the 
verse of a song, was familiarly known and used long before the 
days of Moses. See comments on Ex. 6: 3. The phrase appears 
to indicate the daring and impious courage with which this 
valiant warrior trod down all laws and rights both human and 
divine. The beginning of his kingdom was Babylon, on the 
river Euphrates, with other cities in the land of Shinar, which 
Nimrod, it seems, conquered, they having been founded originally 
by people of the race of Japheth (Geike, Hours with the Bible. 
Vol. 1, ch. 17) ; and he left the impress of his character deeply 
stamped on this city of Babylon, whose king, "the king of 
Shinar," in the days of Abraham, came on an expedition of more 



126 GENESIS 

than a thousand miles to rob the peoples (ch. 14: 1); and whom 
Habakkuk (ch. 1: 12 — 17), a little before the destruction of 
Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar, represents as a pitiless fisher- 
man, proud and self-confident, who with his hook and his cast- 
net emptied the rivers and the seas of fish. Isaiah had elegantly- 
used the figure of a hunter, two hundred years before, to repre- 
sent the insatiable rapacity of the Assyrian Sennacherib, a 
worthy predecessor of the Babylonian Nebuchadnezzar. Isa. 10: 
13, 14. 

No satisfactory reason can be given why, in this place (vr. 10), 
and in ch. 11: 9 the Hebrew form "Babel," should be preserved 
and in all the rest of the Bible the same word and name should 
take the Greek form "Babylon." The inevitable effect of this 
arbitrary change is that few of the readers of the Bible know 
that in Hebrew the two names are identical. The Greek trans- 
lation of the LXX has Babylon in ch. 10: 10, and "Confusion" 
in ch. 11: 9, translating the Hebrew word "Babel." Amat and 
Scio, following the Latin Vulgate, put "Babylon" in ch. 10: 10 
and "Babel" in ch. 11: 9. The Reina-Valera Version and the 
English Versions use "Babel" in both cases, and "Babylon" 287 
times in the rest of the Bible. As the Hebrew is always the 
same, the Modern Spanish Version places "Babylon" in the text 
and "Babel" in the margin; in order that the reader may under- 
stand that the tower of Babylon was the beginning of the famous 
city of that name. 

The original of vr. 11 is not clear and the sense is equivocal; 
some sustaining that "out of that land" of Shinar, went forth 
Nimrod to Assyria, and built Nineveh; while others maintain 
that the natural and proper translation (Asshur and Assyria 
being one and the same thing in Hebrew) is that Asshur "went 
forth and buiided Nineveh"; giving us probably to understand 
that Asshur (of the race of Shem, vr. 22), or his descendants, 
who bear his name, being pressed by Nimrod, went forth out of 
the country of Shinar, which they had before occupied, and 
founded Nineveh; at a great distance to the north or N. W. of 
Babylon, 250 miles in a straight line, and on the river Tigris; 
and this capital was, for many ages, a greater, more powerful 
and more important city than Babylon. It is to be observed 
that although Nimrod (or, if you prefer it, Asshur) "buiided 
Nineveh and Rehoboth-Ir, Calah and Resen," we are not told that 
Nimrod buiided Babylon, nor Erech, Accad or Calneh. It is prob- 
able that he "hunted" them, and began with these trophies of 
his "violent dealing" to found his empire. It seems that Reho- 
both-Ir (—Streets of the city), Calah and Resen were dependent 



CHAPTER 10: 6—14 127 

cities of Nineveh, which some suppose were later absorbed into 
it, to form the "great city" of which the text speaks, celebrated 
by Diodorus Siculus as a city of fifty or sixty miles in circuit; 
and of which it is said in the book of Jonah that "Nineveh 
was an exceeding great city of three days' journey (in circuit). 
Jonah 3: 3. 

[It would appear from Isa. 23: 13, that Asshur (or "the Assyr- 
ian") founded Babylonia, or "the land of the Chaldeans"; which 
seems to support the view of those who adopt the alternative 
rendering of vr. 11, given in the note, "From that land went forth 
Asshur and builded Nineveh"; as though, after founding Babylon, 
Asshur, being driven out by "the mighty hunter" Nimrod, went 250 
miles farther to the north, and founded Nineveh. But the 
passage in Isaiah is so difficult of satisfactory interpretation, 
that it cannot with any great confidence be cited to prove it. 
— Tr.] 

Mizraim (z^Egypt), another son, or other descendants (because 
the name is plural, or at least dual, corresponding to the two 
Egypts, Upper and Lower) of Ham, founder of the great kingdom 
of that name, was father of the different tribes mentioned — 
Ludim, Anamim, Lehabim, Naphtuhim, Pathrusim, Casluhim, 
Caphtorim (plurals all), to which some add Philistim (—Philis- 
tines) ; and all of them were located in Upper and Lower 
Egypt, to the east and west of the mouths of the Nile, along 
the coasts of the Mediterranean Sea, from Philistia on the east, 
to Lybia and Cyrene on the west. Others understand that 
"Caphtorim" refers to the Island of Caphtor (—Crete); al- 
though it is possible that the Caphtorim passed from Egypt to 
Crete. In Deut. 2: 23; Jer. 27: 4; Amos 9:7, it is said that the 
Philistines proceeded from Caphtor; which would be very easy 
for them to do, if the Caphtorim occupied the territory of the 
mouths of the Nile (as is shown in Map 1 of the Parallel Bible, 
1890), the Philistines touching Egypt on the N. E. It is supposed 
that the tribes of the Casluhim, to the N. E. of Egypt (in what 
was later called the land of Goshen, ch. 45: 10; 47: 27), and 
the Caphtorim, in the delta of the Nile, mixed; so that it might 
well be said that the Philistines descended from either of the 
two. The. declaration of Jer. 47: 4, that the Philistines pro- 
ceeded from the Island of Caphtor, may be, therefore, understood 
in this sense; or, as "isle" and "coast" are the same thing in 
Hebrew, the phrase is ambiguous; and it may be that those 
powerful enemies of Israel were of Egyptian extraction, pro- 
ceeding from the mixture of the Caphtorim and Casluhim, both 
of them coast tribes of northern Egypt. 



128 GENESIS 

Put (or Phut), the third son of Ham, is probably the same as 
Mauritania, which is now occupied by the kingdoms or provinces 
of Morocco, Fez and Algeria, on the N. W. of Africa. 

10: 15 — 20. CANAAN AND THE CANAANITES. 

15 And Canaan begat Sidon his first-born, and Heth, 

16 and the Jebusite, and the Amorite, and the Girgashite, 

17 and the Hivite, and the Arkite, and the Sinite, 

18 and the Arvadite, and the Zemarite, and the Hamathite : and 
afterward were the families of the Canaanite spread abroad. 

19 And the border of the Canaanite was from Sidon, as thou goest 
toward Gerar, unto Gaza : as thou goest toward Sodom and Gomor- 
rah and Admah and Zeboim, unto Lasha. 

20 These are the sons of Ham, after their families, after their 
tongues, in their lands, in their nations. 

Sidon, the first-born of Canaan, gave name to all the land of 
Phenicia. Josh. 13: 6; Jud. 18: 7. From him the ancient city of 
Sidon took its name and origin; which still exists as a city of 
importance; with Tyre, twenty miles to the south, which was a 
"daughter of Sidon" (Isa. 23: 12), and much richer and more 
important than she; and Carthage, an African colony of Tyre, 
and the powerful rival of Rome; which in the days of Hannibal 
came near destroying that city which in time became the proud 
mistress of the world. 

Heth, his second son, was the father of the Hittites, a power- 
ful nation or tribe, which at one time was the dominant power 
in Syria and Asia Minor. Then follow the familiar names of 
Jebusites, Amorites, Girgashites, and Hivites, and the less familiar 
names of Arkites, Sinites, Arvadites, Zemarites, and Hamathites; 
all five situated to the north of the land of Canaan, and 
to the north and N. W. of Damascus — names of peoples and not 
of individuals. After this is given the exact demarcation of the 
territory of the Canaanites : from Sidon on the N. W. to Gaza 
on the S. W.; and from thence to the Salt (or Dead) Sea, the 
site of Sodom and Gomorrah and Admah and Zeboim (cities de- 
stroyed in the days of Lot), as far as Lasha; which is probably 
the same as Callirrhoe, of the Roman period (famous for its 
warm baths), situated to the east of the Salt Sea; — that is to 
say, the land of Canaan in all its length and breadth; from 
north to south along the coast of the Mediterranean; and then 
from east to west, in all its breadth, from the Mediterranean to 
beyond the Dead or Salt Sea, on its southern border. It is to 
be borne in mind that the land on the eastern side of Jordan 
was not reputed to be part of the land of Canaan. Josh. 22: 9, 
10, 19, 32, 



CHAPTER 10: 21—31 129 

10: 21 — 31. THE LINEAGE OF SHEM. 

21 And unto Shem, the father of all the children of Eber,* the elder 
brother of Japheth.f to him also were children born. 

22 The sons of Shem : Elam, and Asshur, and Arpachshad, and 
Lud, and Aram. 

23 And the sons of Aram : Uz, and Hnl, and Gether, and Mash. 

24 And Arpachshad begat Shelah ; and Shelah begat Eber. 

25 And unto Eber were born two sons : the name of the one was 
Peleg ; for in his days was the earth divided ; and his brother's name 
was Joktan. 

26 And Joktan begat Almodad, and Sheleph, and Hazarmaveth, 
and Jerah, 

27 and Hadoram, and Uzal, and Diklah, 

28 and Obal, and Abimael, and Sheba, 

29 and Ophir, and Havilah, and Jobab : all these were the sons of 
Joktan. 

30 And their dwelling was from Mesha, as thou goest toward 
Sephar, the mountain of the east. 

31 These are the sons of Shem, after their families, after their 
tongues, in their lands, after their nations. 

[*M. S. V., Heber.] 

[fA. V. and M. 8. Y., brother of Japhetk the elder.] 

In vr. 21, Shem is called "the father of all the children of 
Heber," or the Hebrews (see ch. 14: 13), which was his chief est 
glory, because that was the line of the promise. His sons were 
Elam=the ancient Persians; Asshur=the Assyrians; Arphaxad 
rzzprobably the Chaldeans, to the south of Babylon; Lud=Lydia, 
in Asia Minor; Aram— the Syrians; Uz, who perhaps gave name 
to the land of Uz, of which the holy and patient patriarch Job was 
a native, towards the north of Arabia, or to the N. E. of Edom; 
Hul, Jeter and Mas, of whom we only know that they were 
tribes of Aram or Syria. Of the two sons of Heber, the one 
was named Peleg (—Division), from the circumstance that "in 
his days the earth was divided." This may be understood either 
physically or morally, and both senses have their defenders. 
Some of the older commentators (and even Adam Clarke, in 
1810), understood it of the division of the earth into continents; 
on the supposition that formerly all the different continents were 
united in one. But modern science has settled it that such a sense 
is absolutely untenable. Nevertheless it is possible that it re- 
fers to the valley of the river Jordan; a fracture of the crust 
of the earth (the most remarkable that is known in all the 
world, and for which modern science can assign no cause), 
which is called the "Arabah," and extends from the foot of 
Lebanon to the Red Sea. It is probable that this material cleavage 
of the crust of the earth (which descends to a depth of 2600 feet 
below the level of the ocean), took place during the physical 
convulsions which caused the deluge of Noah; but if not this, 
nothing that is known would be more worthy of commemoration 



130 GENESIS 

under the name of "Peleg" than this "division" of the land so 
intimately related to the history of the people of Israel de- 
scended from him. 

It is, nevertheless, the commonly accepted sense, that this 
"division" of the earth, from which Peleg took name, refers 
rather to the confusion of tongues in Babylon (ch. 11: 1 — 9), 
which was the cause of the dispersion of men through all the 
earth; an idea which the Psalmist expresses by this identical 
word (Heb. palag), where he says in Ps. 55: 9; "divide their 
tongue" (=confound their speech and their counsels). 

The other son of Heber, Joktan, had thirteen sons, whose 
abode is determined by two points well known in that day — 
Mesha and Mount Sephar — but entirely unknown to us. It is 
supposed, nevertheless, that they mark out an extensive terri- 
tory in Arabia which embraces all the south and a great part of 
the west of this great peninsula; and they are all so located on 
the already cited Map 1 of the Parallel Bible, which is the 
latest, if not the best authority, on such points. Of these thirteen 
sons of Joktan, three deserve special mention, to wit, Sheba, 
Hayilah (namesakes of two of the sons of Cush), and Ophir, 
of whom, being the only one of that name mentioned in the 
Bible, it is natural to suppose that the country from whence 
came the most famous and abundant gold of ancient times took its 
name from him. There can be little doubt of the fact that all the 
Cushites passed first to Arabia, and from thence some passed 
over to Africa, while others remained in Arabia; in this way it 
was very easy that the two Shebas, the Cushite and the Shemite, 
should take part in establishing the kingdom of that name, in 
Arabia Felix on the Red Sea, or at a little distance from it; 
which some regard as Cushite and others as Shemite. It may be, 
therefore, that both sides are right, and that even the Abyssinians 
may have some shadow of truth in their contention that the 
Queen of Sheba was the founder of their kingdom and dynasty. 

With regard to Havilah, we have already the Cushite of this 
name established on the coast of Africa, opposite to the Strait of 
Babel-mandeb; the map already cited of the Parallel Bible lo- 
cates the Shemite of this name on the Arabian coast of the Red 
Sea, some 200 miles to the north. The book of Genesis speaks 
of three other Havilahs (in vr. 7; ch. 2: 11; 25: 18; to which 
we may add 1 Sam. 15: 7); but I believe that what has been 
said is quite sufficient on a tangled point, where much is doubtful, 
and nothing sure. 

Ophir also, the eleventh son of Joktan, and the only one of the 
name, is believed to be the same who gave name to a certain 



CHAPTER 10: 32 131 

region in the south of Arabia, that was rich in gold and precious 
stones. Others believe that the Ophir from whence came the 
renowned gold of that name, was situated in India; and others 
still, in the south of Africa, where exist the mines so fabulously- 
rich in gold and diamonds; — rich beyond anything hitherto dis- 
covered in the known world. 

All the Shemite tribes established themselves in the western 
part of Asia, and to the south of the Asiatic branches of Japheth 
(who occupied the sea coast of the Black and Caspian Seas), 
extending to the south of Arabia on the one hand, and to the 
Persian Gulf on the other; although to some extent mixed with 
the descendants of Ham. But while the descendants of Shem 
and Ham found themselves bounded by seas 'and deserts, and 
limited in their resources by this fact, the family of Japheth, 
with the unlimited field that fell to their lot, scattered them- 
selves over all Europe and over the north, the centre, and the 
east of Asia; and with healthy climates, abundant forests, inex- 
haustible resources, and a continual fight with the difficulties of 
their wild life, developed a physical strength, a freedom of soul 
and a spirit of enterprise, properly their own; and with abun- 
dance of food and ample territories, they multiplied and in- 
creased as was impossible to the descendants of Shem and Ham. 

10: 32. THE PEOGENITOES OF THE EXISTING NATIONS OF THE WOBLD. 

32 These are the families of the sons of Noah, after their genera- 
tions, in their nations ; and of these were the nations divided* in 
the earth after the flood. 

[*M. S. V., disseminated.] 

It is therefore futile and contradictory to the Scriptures to 
suppose that there was any other race, or races, in some corners 
of the earth, who took part in producing the existing popula- 
tion of the world. 

[Note 19. — On the essential unity of all the different races of 
mankind. There has been age-long dispute on this point; it3 
opponents alleging in opposition thereto the impossibility of so 
many races, and so different in form, features, color, hair, etc., 
deriving their origin from one and the same stock; but for those 
who accept the Scriptures as a divine revelation, the question 
is susceptible of ready and simple resolution. The word of God 
affirms it many times, and in different ways, as we have already 
seen; and this for us settles the dispute. Acts 17: 26 says ex- 
pressly "That God made of one blood (or nature) all the 
nations of men, to dwell on all the face of the earth." The 
testimony of God is for us decisive. Nevertheless it will not be 



132 GENESIS 

amiss to indicate in order the principal arguments which sus- 
tain this opinion. They are: 

1st. The clear and peremptory and repeated testimony of the 
word of God. 2nd. The redemption of Christ was made for the 
benefit of his brethren according to the flesh. Since, therefore, 
his redemption was for all the families of men, all of them, 
of necessary consequence, are related to him in that human 
nature which he assumed. If there were many races, or even 
two or three, that would put an end to the unity of the race 
and consequently to the solidarity of Christ's redemption. 3rd. 
The physical nature of all the families of men is one and the 
same — bones, muscles, nerves, veins and arteries; the entire 
anatomy is identical, without increase or diminution, in all of 
them. 4th. All of them cross perfectly; and the progeny which 
thence results is as productive as the families which crossed; 
while among different races of animals, reproduction is either 
impossible, or the progeny is sterile; as is true of the cross 
between the ass and the horse. 5th. The same intellectual and 
moral nature is common to all, notwithstanding the extreme 
degradation to which some of them have been reduced; the 
same state of sin, the same necessity for redemption and the same 
capacity for it. 6th. The allegation that it is impossible that 
so great differences in color, hair, language, etc., should origi- 
nate among members of the same race, is refuted by the facts. 
It has been seen, and it is seen, that under unfavorable circum- 
stances of climate, food, complete abandonment and despotic 
oppression, among tribes and nations of the same race, the most 
surprising changes result in a very few generations; as is seen 
in the case of the Eskimos, the Lapps, the Patagonians, and 
other peoples driven forth into pestiferous climates and into 
Arctic regions by the hand of the invader. And among savage 
tribes it has been seen, that when all dealing between them ceases, 
their languages change in such a manner that in a few genera- 
tions they do not understand each other. And as to color, the 
"black Jews" will answer for that. In fact the Jews, without 
mixing with other races, vary in the color of their skin, hair and 
eyes, among all the peoples and in all the climates of the world, 
where they have long resided; from the fair complexion, blond 
hair and blue eyes of the Danish Jew, to the black or swarthy 
color of the Jews of India and Africa. 

With regard to "the Negroes," properly so called, it is believed 
by the most eminent scientists that their distinctive peculiarities 
of hair, color, nose, lips, etc., are not original, but are due to 
peculiar conditions, as for example, a warm and humid climate, 



CHAPTER 11: 1—9 133 

bad and insufficient food, and other like causes; being the result 
of the degeneration of the copper-colored African races, which 
are every way superior — modifications of structure which, by a 
natural law, when once introduced, become permanent. 

It is a singular example of the inconsistencies of the human 
spirit in the matter of religion, that those who reject as absurd 
and impossible the Bible doctrine that the different families of 
men are all the descendants of Adam and of Noah, should find 
no difficulty whatever in sustaining, as highly scientific, that 
they all alike derive their origin from monkeys! Thus God 
makes one error to confute another.] 

CHAPTER XL 

VES. 1 — 9. THE TOWER OF BABYLON (or Babel), AND THE CONFUSION 
OF TONGUES. (2247 B. C.) 

1 And the whole earth was of one language* and of one speech. 

2 And it came to pass, as they journeyed east, that they found a 
plain in the land of Shinar ; and they dwelt there. 

3 And they said one to another, Come, let us make brick, and 
burn them thoroughly. And they had brick for stone, and slimef had 
they for mortar. 

4 And they said. Come let us build us a city, and a tower, whose 
top may reach unto heaven, and let us make us a name ; lest we be 
scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth. 

5 And Jehovah came down to see the city and the tower, which the 
children of men builded. 

6 And Jehovah said, Behold, they are one people, and they have 
all one language ; and this is what they begin to do : and now nothing 
will be withholden from them, which they purpose to do. 

7 Come, let us go down, and there confound their language, that 
they may not understand one another's speech. 

8 So Jehovah scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of 
all the earth : and they left off building the city. 

9 Therefore was the name of it called Babel ; because Jehovah 
did there confound the language* of all the earth : and from thence 
did Jehovah scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth. 

*Heb. lip. jThat is, bitumen. 

At no remote period of the past it was generally believed, both 
by Jews and Christians, and many still believe it, that the 
Hebrew was the primitive language of men, spoken in Eden, 
and in the ark of Noah; continued in the line of the promise 
after the confusion of tongues; preserved in its integrity in the 
family of Abraham; kept uncontaminated by the Jews in Egypt, 
and used by them till the Babylonish Captivity; during the 
seventy years of which, however, scattered as they were among 
the heathen, they exchanged it for the Chaldean or Aramaic, 
spoken in Palestine in the days of Christ. Of this substitution 
of Chaldean or Aramaic (called "Hebrew" in the New Testament, 



134 GENESIS 

Acts 21: 40; 22: 2), there is not the least doubt; and the change 
effected so suddenly, in less than 70 years, a change so serious 
that the ancient Scriptures should need to be interpreted or 
explained to the captives, when they returned to their own land, 
in order to be well understood by them (Neh. 8: 8. Comp. Ezra 
4: 7), makes it difficult to conceive how it was kept in its in- 
tegrity from Adam to Noah, and from Noah to Moses, in spite of 
all the changes through which they passed in this time. It is 
perhaps possible; but we call to mind the fact that Jacob and 
his maternal uncle, Laban, spoke different languages (ch. 31: 47 
—49), Laban speaking Aramaic, or Syriac, the language of 
Haran (or Charran), where Terah the father of Abraham died, 
while Jacob spoke "the language of Canaan," where his fathers 
lived; a language which they carried with them to Egypt, and 
living apart from the Egyptians, they preserved it; and on re- 
turning, they found it still in use among the Canaanites. Be- 
sides this, on existing monuments, in Tyre and Sidon, have been 
found inscriptions in the Hebrew character. It seems probable, 
therefore, that when Abraham came to the land of Canaan, he 
dropped the language of his own people and family, and adopted 
"the language of Canaan." Isa. 19: 18. 

But however this may be, the children and descendants of 
Noah spoke the same language, whether it were Hebrew or some 
other, more or less different; and the confusion of their lan- 
guage, of which this paragraph treats, came to break the bond of 
union between them, and "scatter them abroad over the face of 
the whole earth." 

If "the land of Ararat," where the ark came to rest, is the same 
which we call Armenia, about which there is dispute, it is some- 
what difficult to see how going "toward the east" (or, "from 
the east," for the original is susceptible of both translations), 
they should arrive at the land of Shinar, where Babylon was 
situated; that city being five hundred miles in a straight line 
to the south of Mount Ararat; but as Armenia is an extremely 
broken country, on account of its many and elevated mountain 
ranges, it is natural that in moving their encampments towards 
the south, and following the general course of the river Euphrates 
(which has its source there), they should reach a point where 
the river turns to the E. S. E., and follows this course for a 
thousand miles, until it empties into the Persian Gulf. The 
course of the river is more toward the east than the south, and 
this in Hebrew usage would fulfil sufficiently well the condi- 
tions of the text. So they came at last to that immense plain in 
the land of Shinar through which run the two great rivers 



CHAPTER 11: 1—9 135 

Euphrates and Tigris (both of them originating in the mountains 
of Armenia) , which pleased them so well that by common consent 
they established themselves there, upon the river Euphrates; 
where they began at once to build their tower and their city. 
It is not to be supposed that all the descendants of Noah for- 
sook Armenia, nor that all who went out from thence in search 
of better lands and a more genial climate, came to pitch precisely 
on the site of Babylon; — as the plain was immense, and em- 
braced a great part of both the ancient empires of Assyria and 
Babylon. Reference is had rather, to that numerous and principal 
company of them to which the writer now directs our attention, 
which remained together for their mutual protection and profit. 

There had now passed more than one hundred years, perhaps 
more than two hundred years, after the deluge* (see comments 
on Peleg, ch. 10: 25), and as the population of the world was 
still sparse, all these "cities," including Babylon and Nineveh, 
would be places of no great size. Compare the "city" which Cain 
was building when his son Enoch was born. See ch. 4: 17, and 
comments. 

The contrary opinion, that the city and the tower of Babel, 
or Babylon, was at this time really great, and the population 
very large, gave occasion, in part, for the Version of the LXX to 
add a hundred years to the life of all these post-diluvian pa- 
triarchs (from Arphaxad to Nahor, the father of Terah and 
grandfather of Abraham) at the time of the birth of the first 
son mentioned, and to insert bodily Cainan with his 130 years 
more, between Arphaxad and Shelah; giving thus 531 years be- 
tween the deluge and the birth of Peleg, instead of the 101 of 
the Hebrew text; and 1307 between the deluge and the calling of 
Abraham, instead of 427. See Note 12, on Biblical Chronology. 

*On this point, an intelligent friend writes me that Paul's express 
statement that the giving of the Law was 430 years after the covenant 
made with Abraham (Gal. 3:17) settles that point with him for ail 
time : but that he does not think the accepted chronology allows suf- 
ficient time between the Deluge and Abraham, for the great population he 
supposes there was in the world at that time ; and he claims that the 
Hebrew text is not as explicit on this point as on the other. This is a 
matter I am not competent to handle. My comments on the text are 
based on the commonly accepted chronology. But it is in any case note- 
worthy that while the translators of the old Septuagint Version (and of 
the Samaritan Version as well), hold tenaciously to the 430 years be- 
tween the calling of Abraham and the giving of the Law, they add 887 
years to the preceding period, making it 1307 years from the Deluge to 
the calling of Abraham, instead of 427. See how they do this, in Note 
12, on Biblical Chronology. Those who plead the necessity of gaining 
time, usually accept this as nearer the truth. — Tr. 



136 GENESIS 

These changes, made in the Greek Version of the LXX (done in 
Egypt, between 280 and 150 B. C), in the presence of the pyramids 
and the other colossal monuments of Egypt, and its exaggerated 
chronology, which carried their kingdom backward far beyond 
the times of Noah, clearly manifest the object they had in view; 
and although, for reasons given in that Note, we cannot have an 
absolute confidence in the numbers of the Hebrew text, we do 
not on this account reject them, without greater cause than the 
changes which were so purposely introduced into the Version of 
the LXX. On the contrary, we accept the idea that the popula- 
tion of the world was still small, and that those cities, founded 
or subdued by Nimrod and Asshur were comparatively small 
towns: all small towns had kings, and were fortified and walled in 
those ancient times (ch. 14:8; 19:20 — 22; 26:1, 16); the five 
"Cities of the Plain" occupying in part what is now the site of 
the Dead Sea. Gen. 14: 3. And such, I think is undoubtedly the 
idea of the Bible. A numerous population is never migratory; 
but vrs. 2, 3 inform us that these people continued to move their 
encampments until they came to this great plain in the land of 
Shinar; and at once they set about to build their tower and 
their city. The poets, the artists and the ancient romancers have 
undoubtedly given us some exaggerated ideas of this work. The 
object of the work, given in the text, was not that of scaling the 
heavens, nor defying the wrath of Heaven, nor yet to laugh at 
another deluge of waters. "They said: Go to, let us build us a 
city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven, and let us 
make us a name; lest we be scattered, abroad upon the face of 
the whole earth" (vr. 4) ; which was precisely what God desired 
to effect, and what he had ordered, when Noah and his sons 
went forth out of the ark. Ch. 9: 1. When we bring into view 
Deut. 1: 28, where the cowardly spies said, to discourage the 
people, "that the cities (of the Canaanites) are great and forti- 
fied up to heaven" we shall see that it is not necessary to under- 
stand literally the words a "tower whose top shall reach to 
heaven." Comp. Amos 2: 9. The concentration of population and 
of power was evidently their purpose. 

The tower of Babylon was a project well worthy of the ambi- 
tion and impiety of Nimrod, and of his dreams of empire and 
irresistible power; — on the supposition that this was his en- 
terprise. But God destroyed their project, and confounding the 
language (Heb. lip) of the people, he rendered impossible free 
communication between them; and in this way he dispersed them 
to the four winds of heaven. 

With this blow of the avenging rod of God, came to an end the 



CHAPTER 11: 1—9 137 

third experiment (so to speak) which God was making with the 
apostate race. See pp. 87, 113, 144. They had again turned their 
backs on God, making haste to cast into oblivion the terrible 
lesson of the Flood; and so, with the confusion of their speech, 
God "delivered them up (without any restraint) to the lusts of 
their own hearts"; and placed a species of interdict upon these 
nations of "forgetters of God," separating them from all inter- 
course with those few with whom there yet remained something 
of the true religion; as says Paul in Rom. 1: 28: "And even as 
they refused, to have God in their knowledge, God gave them up 
to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not fitting." 

In vr. 7 we have the same form of divine consultation as in ch. 
1: 26, and it has the same explanation. If we accept the theory 
that Moses incorporated with his history a number of documents 
which he found existing in his day, either orally, or in parch- 
ment, or on baked clay, we should say that this relation may be 
one of them, for it bears on its face indications of an extreme 
antiquity, and of a very primitive state of society, in which an 
exaggerated anthropomorphism was the natural manner in which 
men spoke of God, attributing to him human actions and pas- 
sions with a degree of freedom which would be tolerated only 
among primitive peoples. 

It is interesting to note the zeal and enthusiasm with which 
the people went about this enterprise. As stone, and lime for 
mortar, were lacking in that country, they adopted the expe- 
dient of putting thoroughly burnt brick instead of stone, and 
bitumen or asphalt (called "slime" in the text; abundant sup- 
plies of which were found at Hit, 140 miles higher up the river) 
instead of mortar; with which they went heroically forward in 
their work, till God put an end to it. Until quite recent times 
it was believed that even the site of Babylon was completely 
lost; according to the many notable predictions of the ancient 
Hebrew prophets with regard to the utter and perpetual destruc- 
tion and desolation of that proud and oppressing city. But at 
last, diligent investigators have been able to identify the site; 
and among other ruins, buried in immense mounds of debris, 
there stands one of notable elevation, which bears today the name 
of Birs Nimrod; which many believe to have been part of the 
ancient tower of Babylon, or Babel; which Nebuchadnezzar found 
half ruined, and re-built and embellished with extraordinary 
magnificence. The tradition related by the Jewish historian 
Josephus, to the effect that God beat down the tower with 
lightnings and horrible tempest, may well have been founded on 
fact; but the Bible says nothing about it. 



138 GENESIS 

11: 10 26. THE DESCENDANTS OF SHEM, IN THE LINE OF THE 

promise. (From 2346 to 2056 b. c.) 

10 These are the generations of Shem. Shem was a hundred years 
old, and begat Arpachshad two years after the flood : 

11 and Shem lived after he begat Arpachshad five hundred years, 
and begat sons and daughters. 

12 And Arpachshad lived five and thirty years, and begat Shelah : 

13 and Arpachshad lived after he begat Shelah four hundred and 
three years, and begat sons and daughters. 

14 And Shelah lived thirty years, and begat Eber : 

15 and Shelah lived after he begat Eber four hundred and three 
years, and begat sons and daughters. 

16 And Eber lived four and thirty years, and begat Peleg : 

17 and Eber lived after he begat Peleg four hundred and thirty 
years, and begat sons and daughters. 

18 And Peleg lived thirty years, and begat Reu : 

19 and Peleg lived after he begat Reu two hundred and nine years, 
and begat sons and daughters. 

20 And Reu lived two and thirty years, and begat Serug: 

21 and Reu lived after he begat Serug two hundred and seven 
years, and begat sons and daughters. 

22 And Serug lived thirty years, and begat Nahor : 

23 and Serug lived after he begat Nahor two hundred years, and 
begat sons- and daughters. 

24 And Nahor lived nine and twenty years, and begat Terah : 

25 .and Nahor lived after he begat Terah a hundred and nineteen 
years, and begat sons and daughters. 

26 And Terah lived seventy years, and begat Abram, Nahor, and 
Haran. 

It is to be observed that in this genealogical table, as in the 
one found in ch. 5, the son indicated is not always the firstborn, 
but is the one who follows in the line of the promise. The list 
begins with Shem and his son Arphaxad (or Arpachshad), who 
was born two years after the deluge; but if we hold as chronological 
the order found in ch. 10: 22, Shem had two sons, Elam and 
Asshur, before Arphaxad, and so he (Arphaxad) was third in 
the order of his birth. We might believe indeed that one of the 
two was born before the deluge, or at least in the ark, except 
that ch. 10: 1 tells us expressly that the children of the sons of 
Noah were all born after the flood. As therefore two years is very 
little time for the birth of three sons, it is probable that the two 
first were twins; and thus Arphaxad came to be third. The same 
thing happened in the case of Abram, or Abraham, who was the 
third son of Terah, although his name is always given as the first 
of the three brothers. Vr. 26. According to Acts 7: 4, Abram went 
forth from Haran (or "Charran") after the death of his father 
at the age of 205, according to ch. 11: 32; and according to ch. 
12: 4, "Abram was 75 years of age, when he departed from 
Haran"; so that he was not born when his father was 70 years old, 
as might be inferred from vr. 26 of this chapter, but sixty years 
later. And as Nahor married the daughter of his brother Haran, 



CHAPTER 11: 27—32 139 

it is natural to suppose that Haran was the first-born of Terah 
(65 years older than Abraham) who died in Ur of the Chaldees; 
and that Nahor was the second; although Abraham is mentioned 
first on account of his pre-eminent dignity, as "he who had re- 
ceived the promises," Heb. 11: 17. 

11: 27 — 32. memoirs of terah. the fourth experiment, the 

CALLING OF ABRAM, OR ABRAHAM. (From 1996 to 1921 B. C.) 

27 Now these are the generations of Terah. Terah begat Abram, 
Nahor, and Haran ; and Haran begat Lot. 

28 And Haran died before his father Terah in the land of his 
nativity, in Ur of the Chaldees. 

29 And Abram and Nahor took them wives : the name of Abram's 
wife was Sarai ; and the name of Nahor's wife, Milcah, the daughter 
of Haran, the father of Milcah, and the father of Iscah. 

30 And Sarai was barren ; she had no child. 

31 And Terah took Abram bis son, and Lot the son of Haran, his 
son's son, and Sarai his daughter-in-law, his son Abram's wife ; and 
they went forth with them from Ur of the Chaldees, to go into the 
land of Canaan ; and they came unto Haran, and dwelt there. 

32 And the days of Terah were two hundred and five years : and 
Terah died in Haran. 

As this is not a genealogical table it is evident that we must 
avail ourselves again of the secondary use of the word "genera- 
tions" in vr. 27, viz., that of memoirs, or domestic history. See 
comments on ch. 2: 4. 

Here are repeated the names of the sons of Terah, in the order 
given in vr. 26; and Abram, or Abraham, is again placed before 
his two brothers, Nahor and Haran, although he was the youngest 
of the three. We learn therefore from these memoirs of Terah, 
studied in connection with ch. 12: 1 — 4, and Acts 7: 2 — 4, that 
while Abram was in Ur of the Chaldees, to the south of Babylon, 
and at no great distance from where the river Euphrates empties 
into the Persian Gulf, God appeared to him; and "before he dwelt 
in Haran" (or Charran), commanded him to go forth from his 
country and from his kindred and from the house of his father 
into a land which he would show him. It does not appear from 
the words of Stephen, in Acts 7:2, 3, that on this occasion God 
made him any special promises; but that, appearing to him as 
"the God of glory," he commanded him to separate from all of 
his own people, and to follow him into another land, without 
even telling him where it was. If we interpret strictly the 
words, it would seem that this was on the part of Abram an 
act of ooedience to the command which God had given him; 
rather than an act of faith in great promises which he then 
made him. It seems that this was the very thought of Stephen, 
to wit, that he called him first, but did not make promises to him 



140 GENESIS 

until the second calling, after the death of his father. Three ex- 
periments having already failed, which God was making with the 
lost race of Adam (pp. 87, 113), he enters here upon a fourth, 
and on a footing totally different from the preceding; in order 
to preserve at least some remnants of true religion in the earth, 
until "the fulness of the time when he would send forth his Son;" 
and in order to prepare the world beforehand for this mission of 
the promised "Seed of the Woman," who was to make an 
end of the kingdom and power of the Serpent in the earth. 
This fourth experiment was to choose one man, separate him 
from his own family and people, and educate and train him 
and his descendants to love and serve and obey Jehovah 
in entire separation from the other nations. But contrary 
to the plan and design of God, Terah, and almost all the 
family, determined to accompany Abram on his journey to 
the land of Canaan; and, in fact, they set out for that point. 
Haran (65 years older than Abram) was now dead, leaving two 
daughters, of whom the elder, Milcah, married her uncle Nahor, 
and became the mother of Rebekah, the wife of Isaac (ch. 24: 
47) ; and the second, Iscah (which in the common belief of Jews 
and Christians was another name of Sarai) married her uncle 
Abram; bearing the name of Iscah first, in Ur of the Chaldees, 
and Sarai (="my princess") after her marriage. If it was not 
so, the mention of Iscah in vr. 29, as a well known person, would 
be idle; for the name is not mentioned again in the Bible. 
Others base on ch. 20: 13 (where Abram says that Sarai was 
"the daughter of my father, but not the daughter of my mother") 
the belief that Sarai was the daughter of Terah by a second 
marriage, or by some concubine or secondary wife that he had, 
and that thus she was Abram's half sister. Others still, conjec- 
ture that of the two supposed wives of Terah, one was the mother 
of Haran, the father of Iscah or Sarai, and the other, the mother 
of Abram; so that when he married this niece of his, daughter 
of his half-brother, he might say that she was his sister (in the 
same sense in which Lot, son of Haran, is called his "brother" 
in ch. 14: 14), — "the daughter of my father, but not the daughter 
of my mother." 

On the supposition, therefore, that Iscah and Sarai were one 
and the same person, we say that Terah, as the head of the tribe, 
after the death of Haran took with him nearly all the family, 
including Lot, the younger brother of the wives of his two uncles, 
Abram and Nahor, and started to go to the land of Canaan; thus 
defeating the purpose and plan of God; of which probably he 
knew nothing. There were more than 1000 miles in this jour- 



CHAPTER 11: 27—32 141 

ney; because, on account of the impassable desert of Arabia, 
which lay between Ur of the Chaldees and the land of Canaan, 
they had to follow the course of the Euphrates towards the N. 
W., 650 miles in a direct line, to the fords of the river, beyond 
Haran; and then 500 miles in a direct line, towards the S. W., to 
Hebron, or Beersheba, which became Abraham's familiar places of 
abode. But it seems that Terah became weary of the long 
journey, and when they arrived at Haran, or Charran (as we 
have it in Acts 7: 2, A. V.), a short distance from the fords of 
Carchemish (2 Chron. 35: 20; Jer. 46: 2), he stopped there; 
and finding the place to his liking and good for his business, they 
remained there, we cannot tell how many years; but we do 
know that there Abram and Lot became rich (ch. 12: 5; 13: 2), 
and there Terah died, without ever reaching the land of Canaan; 
a sad example of enterprises unfinished, due to a dilatory and 
fickle spirit; and a type of that multitude of persons who begin 
the march to the heavenly Canaan, but occupy themselves with 
other things by the way, and die without ever reaching it. 

The names of Nahor and his wife Milcah are not found in the 
list of those whom Terah took with him (vr. 31) ; but later he did 
follow them, probably during the lifetime of Terah; for in 
subsequent years, when Abraham was seeking a wife for his son 
Isaac, we find them located there, and Haran is called the "city 
of Nahor." Ch. 24: 15, 10. The name of Haran the son of Terah, 
ought not to be confounded with "Haran" (or "Charran"), that 
of the place where Terah died. The English reader naturally 
infers that there is some connection between the two. But there 
is none; the two names are entirely distinct in Hebrew, being 
"Haran" the one, and "Charran" the other; which latter form 
is given in the A. V. of Acts 7:2, 4. The R. V. confounds the 
two. The Modern Spanish Version preserves the distinction; 
but in this translation, I follow the established English usage, 
with the explanation given, that there is no connection whatever 
between the two names. 

There has been much dispute regarding Ur of the Chaldees, 
the native city of Abraham; some locating it to the N. W. of 
Mesopotamia, a short distance to the north of Haran, where 
Terah died. This is undoubtedly an error, founded on the im- 
perfect understanding of the words of Stephen, "while he 
(Abraham) was in Mesopotamia, before he dwelt in Charran." 
"Mesopotamia," in Greek, means "between the two rivers," 
Tigris and Euphrates; and it is used not only of the Mesopotamia 
of Bethuel and Laban, but is applied with propriety to that vast 
territory that lay intermediate "between the two rivers"; down 



142 GENESIS 

to their confluence, 200 or 300 miles S. E. of the country of 
Babylon. The "Mesopotamia" of Bethuel and Laban (ch. 24:. 10) 
was Haran, or Charran, itself, where they resided. Besides 
which Stephen says that "Abraham, went forth out of the land 
of the Chaldeans and dwelt in Charran." (Acts 7:4); and it is 
well known that "the land of Chaldeans" lay from 400 to 600 
miles to the S. E. of Haran, and extended as far as the junction 
of the two rivers, the Tigris and the Euphrates; if indeed both 
rivers did not at that time empty separately into the Persian 
Gulf. There is no doubt that those Biblical maps are in error 
which locate Ur of the Chaldees to the north of Haran. It was 
rather (where the most recent maps locate it) some 600 miles 
to the S. E. of Haran; 200 miles to the S. E. of the city of 
Babylon, on the southern side of the river Euphrates; and which 
in Abraham's day may have been a seaport; if maritime com- 
merce in fact existed in the times of Abraham: see p. 90. 

In the light of the discoveries of recent years, there is no rea- 
sonable doubt that this was the city of the birth and education 
of Abraham; called "Uru" in the cuneiform inscriptions there 
found,, and represented today by the ruins of Mugheir, whose 
remains, recently discovered, attest the ancient greatness, riches 
and power of the place. It is therefore interesting to know, that 
like Moses, Abraham also was born and bred in a rich, cultured 
and powerful nation, and was educated in the midst of the 
luxury and the highest civilization of that day. The city of Uru 
(or Ur), was likewise the ancient seat of the worship of the god 
Sin (=the Moon); represented, however, as a god rather than 
a goddess. 

It is undeniable that Abraham and all his family and kindred 
were idolators, as I shall show in the following chapter; and the 
Jews, while denying this in respect of their great progenitor, 
Abraham, affirm with respect to his father Terah, that he was not 
only an idolater, but a manufacturer of idols; and they relate 
many stories of the zeal which from childhood Abraham dis- 
played against idolatry, and of the way in which he broke to 
pieces and mocked at the idols made by his father. In the 
belief of the Jews, it was because of this and of his many other 
pre-eminent virtues, that Abraham was chosen by Jehovah, and 
called "the friend of God," and was made the depository of 
the promises and hopes of the human family; all which is not 
only characteristic of the self-love of the Jews and of their 
devotion to their own righteousness (which was the cause of 
their rejection of Christ, Rom. 10: 3), but it is also contrary 
to the spirit of the gospel and to the positive teaching of 



CHAPTER 12: 1—8 143 

the word of God, both in the Old and the New Testament. Rom. 
4: 1—8. 

CHAPTER XII. 

VES. 1 — 8. THE SECOND CALLING OF ABRAHAM. THE GREAT PROMISE. 

canaan. (From 1921 to 1920 B. c.) 

1 Now Jehovah said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, 
and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto the land that 
I will show thee : 

2 and I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, 
and make thy name great; and be thou a blessing: 

3 and I will bless them that bless thee, and him that curseth thee 
will I curse : and in thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed. 

4 So Abram went, as Jehovah had spoken unto him ; and Lot went 
with him : and Abram was seventy and five years old when he departed 
out of Haran. 

5 And Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother's son, and 
all their substance that they had gathered, and the souls that they 
had gotten in Haran ; and they went forth to go into the land of 
Canaan ; and into the land of Canaan they came. 

6 And Abram passed through the land unto the place of Shechem, 
unto the oak of Moreh. And the Canaanite was then in the land. 

7 And Jehovah appeared unto Abram, and said, Unto thy seed will 
I give this land ; and there builded he an altar unto Jehovah, who ap- 
peared unto him. 

8 And he removed from thence unto the mountain on the east of 
Bethel, and pitched his tent, having Bethel on the west and Ai on 
the east : and there he builded an altar unto Jehovah, and called 
upon the name of Jehovah. 

The third experiment had failed: the entire race had again 
apostatized from God. Job, the pious and patient patriarch 
of Uz, belonged to a distant region, and also to a past genera- 
tion; if we may judge by the 140 years which he lived after 
having had and buried three daughters and seven sons, all of 
these married and with homes of their own (Job 1: 2 — 4), and 
also if we compare the years of Job with the 175 years of 
Abraham and the 180 of his son Isaac. With regard to Mel- 
chisedek (see ch. 14: 18 — 20 and comments), it is so little that 
we know of him, surrounded by pagan Canaanites, that it is 
scarcely necessary to make him an exception. The line of 
promise, like "the sons of God" of the times before the flood, 
had already renounced the living and true God; and this, only 
400 years after that terrible and exemplary punishment which 
God had visited on the antediluvian sinners. Abram, the future 
"father of believers," was an idolater (as we shall see) and 
was bred up, as the Jews affirm, in a manufactory of idols. 
The Jews deny that he was himself an idolater; but the word 
of God teaches it in the most unequivocal manner. See ch. 
31: 53, and Josh. 24: 2, 14, 15. "The seed of the Serpent" had 



144 GENESIS 

about made an end of the "seed of the Woman"; the tares had 
taken possession of the whole field, and, as in the days of 
Noah, the wheat could hardly be anywhere found. See the 
parable of the Tares of the field. Matt. 13: 24—30; 36—43. At 
such a rate of retrogression, long before the "fulness of the 
time," when God would "send forth his Son," and indeed within 
a very brief space of time, humanly speaking, all knowledge 
of God would be completely lost from the world; Satan would 
definitely triumph, the hopes of the human family would finally 
fail, and the promises of God be falsified. 

Another experiment, therefore (so to speak), God was about 
to make, the fourth (see pp. 87, 113, 140), but on a new foot- 
ing, and changing completely his plan. It has been well said 
that the confusion of tongues at the tower of Babylon was 
a sort of Edict of Paganism against the apostate race, separat- 
ing it from the few who still retained the knowledge of God: — 
an edict which remained in force until the day of Pentecost, 
when, with the gift of tongues, there seemed to be a formal 
abrogation of it, in order to give prompt effect to the last com- 
mand of Jesus: "Go ye into all the world and preach the 
gospel to every creature." Mark 16: 15. But in the days of 
Abram, the small remnant had also renounced the God of Noah, 
and there was no longer one human language on earth reserved 
for his glory and service. 

It seems to me that formal idolatry was a manner of wicked- 
ness which probably began after the flood. The antediluvians, 
according to the few notices which we have of them, instead of 
being idolaters, were rather an impious set, pure atheists, de- 
livered up to inordinate sensual passions, to violence, oppres- 
sion, rapine and wickedness. If in this I am right, then it may 
be said that as the Babylonish captivity cured the Jews of 
formal idolatry, so the deluge cured the race of outright atheism 
thenceforward no nation or people has professed atheism, except 
France during the frenzied excesses of its revolution, in 1792 
and the results then renewed the violences of the antediluvians 
Men at last knew that there was a God, and that his indigna 
tion was something to be feared. The subtilty of the Serpent 
therefore, took a new departure, and without denying God, "they 
changed the glory of the incorruptible God for the likeness of 
corruptible man, and of birds, and of four footed beasts and 
creeping things" (Rom. 1: 23); and here we find that Abraham 
himself was an idolater, and his father Terah (as the Jews 
say) a maker of idols. The Bible proofs that Abraham was 
an idolater when God called and drew him to himself, are 



CHAPTER 12: 1—8 145 

very clear and explicit: — Joshua, when he was about to die, said 
to all the people: "Thus saith Jehovah, the God of Israel: 
Your fathers dwelt of old time beyond the River (Euphrates), 
even Terah the father of Abraham, and the father of Nahor: 
and they served other gods; and I took your father Abraham 
from beyond the River," etc. Josh. 24: 2, 3; See also ch. 31: 53, 
where Laban invokes for witnesses of the oath which he had 
put between himself and Jacob, the ancient gods of the family: 
"The gods of Abraham and the gods of Nahor, let them judge 
between us! the gods (likewise) of their father" (Modern 
Spanish Version). These false gods Abraham had renounced. 
As therefore the title "the God of Abraham" was in this case 
equivocal, since Jacob and Laban understood it in opposite 
senses, Jacob did not wish to swear by him, but he "swore by 
the Fear of his father Isaac.'" In the Hebrew text the subject 
and the verb are both alike in the plural form, in all three 
cases, showing thus that in the case of Abraham it was "gods" 
that he served, just as in the case of his brother and his father. 
Compare with this what Joshua repeats in ch. 24: 14, 15, in 
contrasting the gods whom the forefathers of the people had 
served on the other side of the river Euphrates, and Jehovah, 
the new God of Abraham, who was likewise the God of his de- 
scendants, the God of Israel. With this agree the words of 
Nehemiah, in ch. 9:7, 8: "Thou art Jehovah, the God who 
didst choose Abram, and broughtest him forth out of Ur of 
the Chaldees, and gavest him the name of Abraham; and didst 
find his heart faithful before thee, and madest a covenant with 
him," etc. 

Of this new God of Abraham, Stephen says: "The God of 
glory appeared to our father Abraham, before he dwelt in 
Charran; and he said: Get thee out of thy land and from 
thy kindred, and come into the land which I will show thee" 
(Acts 7:2, 3); where the Greek, following the familiar form 
of the Hebrew, says "was seen to Abraham," with allusion, no 
doubt, Jo some visible manifestation; just as is again said in 
vr. 7 of this section. In what form this was done, or whether 
it was done under any form, we are not told; it was probably 
done with some sensible manifestation of his glory; with which 
Abraham began to understand the distinction there was between 
the gods of wood and stone and the only true God; and it seems, 
according as I understand the words of Stephen, that this was 
sufficient for the first calling of Abraham, without giving him 
any promise to draw him; but that it was to prove his obedience 
to the God of glory who had thus sensibly appeared to him. 



146 GENESIS 

He commanded him, therefore, to separate himself from hig 
family and from his native country, and go to another land 
which he would show him. As the family was idolatrous, the 
new plan which God adopted with the fallen race required in 
the case of Abraham entire separation from his people, and 
from the uses and customs of his fellow countrymen. The 
resolution of Terah, not only to accompany him, but himself 
to head the expedition, put in peril the experiment at the very 
outset. But his detention in Haran lent another aspect to 
the case. It seems indubitable that Abram sinned in not con- 
tinuing the journey which he had begun; but perhaps he yielded 
to the pleadings of his people, and so remained with them until 
the death of his father. Stephen, in Acts 7: 4, says that "after 
the death of his father God removed him to this land" — Canaan. 
From all this it appears evident that Abraham had two callings; 
the first, in Ur of the Chaldees, the second, in Haran, after the 
death of his father. Nehemiah speaks only of the former, but 
together with this he joins all the promises and the covenant. 
In Heb. 11: 8, Paul speaks of only one calling, which evidently 
embraces the two. The calling of which Moses treats in Gen. 
12: 2 — 4, comes formally after the death of Terah, and is evi- 
dently the repetition of the first, with promises and amplifica- 
tions which it did not have, compressing, to save time (as is 
frequent in the Bible) the substance of two or more interviews 
into this one; just as we find it in the narrative of the in- 
structions given to Noah with regard to the flood and his ark. 
See Note 15, p. 89. The same thing happens here; because 
Haran was not "his country, nor the place of his birth," which 
was Ur of the Chaldees, whence they had together gone forth, 
some years before; — an undeniable proof that Moses, like Stephen, 
recognizes the first calling, which came to him in the place of his 
birth. And in ch. 15: 7, Jehovah says expressly to Abraham: 
"I brought thee out of Ur of the Chaldees to give thee this land to 
inherit it." The Hebrew language is not provided with moods 
like our own, and it has but two so-called tenses, the "past" 
and the "future," or more properly said, "the perfect and the 
imperfect" ; and in translating the Hebrew into Spanish (or 
English) the translator himself, has to graduate these two 
"tenses," to suit the requirements of our own more deli- 
cate and refined use; which has at least four forms of the 
present, ten or twelve of the past, and as many of the future. 
It remains, therefore, with the translator to say: "Jehovah 
said to Abraham " or "had said," according as he regards it as 



CHAPTER 12: 1—8 147 

referring to the first calling, or to the second, or to the two, 
spoken of as one. 

Nehemiah says (ch. 9:7, 8) that when Jehovah had chosen 
Abraham and brought him forth out of Ur of the Chaldees, 
"thou didst find his heart faithful;" not without sin, but with- 
out any duplicity, sincere and steadfast. How important is this 
point! a thousand times more important is this deep sincerity 
of soul, than any form of dreamed-of sinless perfection in this 
life! and all the subsequent life of Abraham, "the father of 
believers," bears impressed on its very face these two char- 
acteristic traits, implicit faith and instantaneous obedience; and 
the want of these two things (which are in fact one only), is 
what comes to vitiate the profession of a multitude of persons 
who regard themselves as the "children of believing Abraham." 
Rom. 4: 10, 11; Gal. 3: 9: 29. What Jesus said to the Jews 
has like application in the case of Christians: "If ye were 
the children of Abraham, ye would do the works of Abraham." 
John 8: 39. Compare what Paul says about himself, in Acts 
26: 19 and Gal. 1: 15, 16. How precious the words: "thou didst 

FIND HIS HEART FAITHFUL !" 

In the days of Enosh "began the usage of (the godly) calling 
themselves by the name of Jehovah" (ch. 4: 26), as his people; 
but in the family of Abraham, including all his circumcised en- 
campment, this people began now to form a "church"* or "con- 
gregation" of believers, separated from the rest of the world 
by a distinctive rite; of which Paul says in Rom. 4: 11 — 17 
that "Abraham received the sign of circumcision as a seal of 
the righteousness of the faith which he had in uncircumcision, 
that he might be the father of all believers," whether circumcised 
or uncircumcised. And to the promise that God would make of 
him a great nation, he adds the greater promise of making his 
name great, and constituting him a blessing to all nations; 
blessing those that blessed him, and cursing those that cursed 
him; and causing that all the families of the earth should be 
blessed in him. All this was said to him in Haran, after the 
death of his father. Of "the covenant" we have heard nothing 

*In the Greek Version of the LXX (in common use in the days of Christ 
and his apostles, and from which are generally taken the quotations 
from the Old Testament found in the New), the Hebrew word edah 
which in the Modern Spanish Version is translated "assembly," and qahal, 
which is translated "congregation," are indistinctively translated either 
"synagogue" or "church;" — words which are quite as common in the 
Version of the LXX as in the New Testament ; occurring about 265 times. 
In agreement with this, in the New Testament also the "congregation of 
Israel" is called "the church" in Acts 7 : 38 ; and a Christian church is 
called a "synagogue" in James 2 : 2. 



148 GENESIS 

since the time of Noah; but the correlative of the covenant, 
to wit, "the promise," takes now a vast breadth, with a clear- 
ness of expression and precision of meaning which it never 
before had. The primordial promise of the "Seed of the Woman" 
develops now into "exceeding great and precious promises," 
whose full accomplishment we are still awaiting with anxious 
desire: "And in thee shall all the families of the earth be 
blessed." In these words we, Christians, can with much clear- 
ness see Christ, together with that immense train of temporal 
blessings which Christian lands now enjoy (although the greater 
part of their inhabitants reject the friendship and government 
of the God of Abraham), and those spiritual blessings which 
the people of God now enjoy on earth and in heaven; together 
with those greater and eternal blessings which his redeemed 
people shall enjoy in the coming Age, "the world without end," 
not only as individuals, but in their collective capacity, as "the 
nations (of the redeemed) who shall walk in the light of the 
heavenly Jerusalem." Rev. 21: 24. 

This great promise, thus enlarged and extended, came then 
to locate itself definitely in the family of Abraham. As after 
repeated and varied experiments, made with the fallen race, it had 
repeatedly and resolutely declared itself against God, God now 
rejects it deliberately, and confines his attentions and his future 
experiments (to avail myself of this convenient expression, a 
favorite one with the late Dr. J. Addison Alexander, of Prince- 
ton Seminary), to the family of that renowned man, whom he 
honored with the title of "the friend of God." James 2: 23. 
The Apostle Paul well explains this procedure of God with the 
pagan world, in these words: "And even as they refused to 
have God in their knowledge, God gave them up unto a repro- 
bate mind to do those things which are not fitting." Rom. 1: 28. 

At this date, Abram was 75 years old and Sarai, his wife, 
65; being ten years younger than he. Ch. 17: 17. With his 
habitual promptness to do whatever his new God commanded, 
Abram took Sarai his wife and his nephew Lot, and all the 
goods and the souls, or persons, they had acquired there (where 
they may have passed ten years) and leaving his brother 
Nahor in Haran (called afterwards "the city of Nahor," ch. 
24: 10), "they went forth to go into the land of Canaan, where 
they arrived" in due time; — a journey of 400 or 500 miles. 
He then passed through the land, going from north to south, 
until he reached Shechem, the region which was then, as it is 
now, the most beautiful and fertile part of Canaan. There prob- 
ably, near to Shechem, was the oak-grove of Moreh. "The oak," 



CHAPTER 12: 1—8 149 

says the Hebrew; but as a single oak could not serve for the 
encampment of 1,500 people, the word doubtless represents a 
grove of oaks; in the same way that "Abraham pitched his 
tent" (vr. 8, and elsewhere), means in Hebrew to say, "pitched 
his tents," or established the encampment of his numerous 
people. * "Moreh" was probably the name of some principal 
man from whom the wood took name; as we read in the fol- 
lowing chapter, vr. 18, of "the oaks, or oak grove, of Mamre, 
near to Hebron,"; Mamre being the name of the ally and 
associate of Abraham. Ch. 13: 18; 14: 13—24. 

There Jehovah appeared to him again, and said to him: "To 
thee will I give this land. And he builded there an altar to 
Jehovah who had appeared to him" (Heb. was seen to him). It 
was thenceforward the use and custom of this great servant and 
"friend of God," to pitch his tent, erect his altar, and invoke 
in solemn worship (he and his people) the name of Jehovah. 
The altar near the tent is the type of patriarchal piety, worthy 
of the zealous imitation of all the spiritual children of Abraham. 
From thence, with the object of knowing the land which Jehovah 
his God had given him, he passed towards the mountain range 
on the east of Bethel, having Bethel on the west, and Ai on 
the east; famous afterwards in the wars of Joshua. Josh. Ch. 7. 
The principal mountain range of the country passes there to 
the east of Bethel. It is not said that he encamped on the moun- 
tain, as our Bibles would naturally give us to understand. 
The Hebrew word means mount, mountain, hill country, moun- 
tainous region, or mountain range, as the case may be. Here 
the text says "he went toward the mountain," or mountain 
range; which, in fact, passes at a little distance to the east 
of Bethel. Robinson, in his Biblical Researches, describes the 
location, Vol. 2, p. 314. There also he built an altar and called 
upon the name of Jehovah — a phrase which always indicates the 
public worship of all his encampment. 

The declaration in verse 6 "that the Canaanite was then in 
the land," signifies two things: 1st, That formerly these races of 
Canaanites had not been there, and that their occupation of that 
land was of comparatively recent date; and 2nd, that the 
Canaanite — not one tribe in particular, but the descend- 

*It Is much to be regretted that our translators, both English and 
Spanish, say in vr. 8, and elsewhere, Abram "pitched his tent," as though 
he were a solitary traveler ; knowing full well that he had with him not 
less than 1200 or 1500 people (see ch. 14: 14, and comments), overlooking 
the fact that the translator's office is to put the mind of the reader in 
easy and satisfactory communication with that of the writer. The Modern 
Spanish Version renders it: "pitched his tents" = his encampment. — Tr. 



150 GENESIS 

ants of Canaan in general (ch. 10: 15 — 20), was in actual posses- 
sion of that land, of which Jehovah said to Abram: "To thee 
will I give it, and to thy seed after thee." 

12: 9 — 20. EGYPT, WHERE TO PROTECT HIS OWN" LIFE, ABRAM DENIES 

his wife. (1920 or 1919 b. c.) 

9 And Abram journeyed, going on still toward the South. 

10 And there was a famine in the land : and Abram went down 
into Egypt to sojourn there ; for the famine was sore in the land. 

11 And it came to pass, when he was come near to enter into 
Egypt, that he said unto Sarai his wife, Behold now, 1 know that 
thou art a fair woman to look upon : 

12 and it will come to pass, when the Egyptians shall see thee, 
that they will say, This is his wife : and they will kill me, but they 
will save thee alive. 

13 Say, I pray thee, thou art my sister ; that it may be well with 
me for thy sake, and that my soul may live because of thee. 

14 And it came to pass, that, when Abram was come into Egypt, 
the Egyptians beheld the woman that she was very fair. 

15 And the princes of Pharaoh saw her, and praised her to 
Pharaoh : and the woman was taken into Pharaoh's house. 

16 And he dealt well with Abram for her sake : and he had sheep, 
and oxen, and he-asses, and men-servants, and maid-servants, and she- 
asses, and camels. 

17- And Jehovah plagued Pharaoh and his house with great 
plagues because of Sarai, Abram's wife. 

18 And Pharaoh called Abram, and said, What is this that thou 
hast done unto me? why didst thou not tell me that she was thy 
wife? 

19 why saidst thou, She is my sister, so that I took her to be my 
wife? now therefore behold thy wife, take her, and go thy way. 

20 And Pharaoh gave men charge concerning him : and they 
brought him on the way, and his wife, and all that he had. 

Pursuing his journey, traveling towards the South (not one 
of the cardinal points, but a region of that name, to the south 
of the country, called Negeo in Hebrew, ch. 13: 1), on account 
of a famine which he found prevailing there, Abram went for- 
ward as far as Egypt, to sojourn there. It was natural that 
Abram, a Chaldean by birth, and acquainted with Babylon, 
should have a curiosity to see Egypt, which rivaled it in riches, 
civilization and glory. Far better would it have been for him 
to retrace his steps, and go to the north again, rather than 
expose himself to the power of the Pharaohs, powerful, despotic 
and unscrupulous, who reigned there. "Pharaoh" in the Bible 
is the royal title of the sovereigns of Egypt, and not the name 
of any particular individual king. "When he entered Egypt, 
Abram perceived the danger he was running on account of 
the extreme beauty of his wife, and availed himself of a shame- 
ful subterfuge to guard against it. Sarai must have been at 
this time some 65 years of age, being ten years younger than 
Abram; and as she had never been a mother and was wel. 1 



CHAPTER 12: 9—20 151 

cared for, and as the men and women of those days lived to double 
the age they now do (she died, prematurely, at the age of 
127, while Abraham attained to 175), it is probable that she 
had all the attractions of a beautiful woman of 30 in our 
own day. Her fair complexion also, and the fine color that 
set off her beauty, would make her the object of no small 
admiration to the swarthy Egyptians. It seems that at that 
time the women of Egypt were not shut up, nor veiled, as 
has been the usage of the Oriental women for a long time past; 
or if not, Sarai must have been very indiscreet to exhibit 
herself as she did in public. See vrs. 14, 15, also ch. 20: 16, 
and comments. It is likewise to be noted that Abram did not 
go into Egypt as a private individual, but rather as an Arab 
prince, rich, and with great accompaniment; otherwise he would 
not have attracted as he did the attention of the princes of 
Pharaoh and of himself; who being pleased with the beauty of 
the woman, took her to his palace; and instead of killing Abram 
on account of his wife, he treated him well, on account of his 
supposed sister. 

It is wholly impossible to defend, or even to excuse, the 
conduct of Abram on this occasion; and the Bible reveals it in 
all its moral deformity. Notwithstanding this, it is but just to 
remember that our Christian ideas of morality, and of the purity 
and honor of women, were totally unknown to the world of 
that day. Abram himself was but a novice in the ways of the 
true God, and he knew almost nothing of his holiness, his power, 
his righteousness and his fidelity. He had been educated in the 
midst of the idolatries and other abominations of the Chaldeans 
and the Babylonians, where the honor and purity of women 
was held in light esteem, or, rather, were deliberately sacrificed 
upon the altars of their impure goddesses; in .Canaan he was 
surrounded by people who were little if any better; and there, 
in Egypt, the case was, if possible, even worse. His new God 
had hardly begun to give to him and to the people of his en- 
campment lessons in the true religion, in order to give to 
the world, in him and his descendants, the lost knowledge of 
God, and to work out in this apostate world the ideas and 
forms of good morals, personal purity and true holiness, which 
we enjoy, and which in our day, are being diffused abroad in all 
the earth. 

It is certain that what he said about his wife was not an 
absolute falsehood, as will be seen in the comments on ch. 
20: 12; but it was not on this account less than a falsehood; 
and when he put his foot into that net of deception, he little 



152 GENESIS 

suspected where it was going to lead him; as usually happens 
when for motives of convenience we turn aside from the strict 
path of truth and well doing. But on the other hand, let us 
guard against false inferences. It is not to he supposed that 
Sarai had been yet received as the wife, or concubine, of the 
king. She was endangered, but not dishonored. The "house 
of Pharaoh," whither Sarai was carried, was not like a house 
of our own, nor even like a European palace, but it rather 
embraced an immensity of space, walled in and separated, with 
a multitude of structures for hundreds of offices, and thousands 
of persons. "The house of Joseph," where passed all that his- 
tory of himself and his brothers, as related in chs. 42 — 45, was 
part of "the house of Pharaoh." See ch. 45: 2. In the book 
of Esther (ch. 2) we have a particular notice of the long 
preparations that were used with women, before they were 
admitted to the private apartments of the king, either as wives 
or as concubines. And Jehovah, who a little while after, "smote 
Pharaoh with great plagues, both him and his household, on 
account of Sarai, the wife of Abram," would not have deferred 
his interposition, until it was too late, in order to protect her 
honor and her person. When again, with even greater blame- 
worthiness, Abram exposed her to the same danger, in the 
house of Abimelech, king of the Philistines, Jehovah did not 
permit Abimelech to touch her (ch. 20: 6); without any doubt, 
then, he guarded her well while she was in "the house of Pha- 
raoh." 

In spite of this grievous error on the part of Abram, and in 
spite of his little confidence in the divine protection, his God 
did not deprive him of it, but protected the person of Sarai, and 
smote Pharaoh and all his house with such plagues, that the 
king well understood for whose cause that had happened. Call- 
ing therefore Abram, he chided him for his conduct, he restored 
to him his wife, he gave orders to his men of war respecting 
him, and dismissed him with all that was his; giving him a 
suitable accompaniment of soldiers, until he had passed out 
of the country. Having gone to Egypt on account of the famine 
that was in "the South," and God having interposed a prompt 
resistance to the purpose the king had formed of taking for 
his own the wife of Abram, it is natural that he should not have 
passed more than a few months there. 

One must be as signally lacking in good faith as in the gift 
of sound interpretation, to infer from the words of vr. 16 — 
"and he dealt well with Abram for her sake; and he had sheep, 
and oxen, and he-asses, and men-servants and maid-servants, 



CHAPTER 13: 1—4 153 

and she-asses and camels" — that Pharaoh enriched him at the 
cost of his wife's honor. Abram entered Egypt as a prince, 
and as a prince he went out of Egypt. At his coming, "he had 
flocks, and herds, and he-asses, and men-servants, and maid-ser- 
vants, and she-asses, and camels"; and if, when he went out, 
"silver and gold" — more useful and current in Egypt than in 
Haran — are mentioned in addition to these (ch. 13: 2), it is not 
to be wondered at that, with the favor of the king, and regarded 
as his brother-in-law, he should have increased his riches in 
Egypt, already great and with a large accompaniment of de- 
pendents and servants of his own. But to say that he accepted 
these things as gifts from Pharaoh in exchange for his own 
dishonor, is a proof either of much ignorance or of much 
malignity. The man who, but a short time after that, could 
draw forth from his own encampment 318 trained soldiers, his 
own servants, "born in his house" (ch. 13: 14), with which to 
attack four kings, heavily laden with booty, had no need of 
gifts from Pharaoh (nor does the Bible say that Pharaoh made 
him any gifts) ; and that magnanimous man, who, when he re- 
turned victorious from the slaughter of those kings, and the king 
of Sodom said to him: "Give me the persons and take the 
goods for thyself," with rare nobility of spirit restored to him 
the whole of the prey, together with the persons, saying: "I 
have lifted up my hand to Jehovah, God Most High, Possessor 
of heaven and earth, (protesting) that I will not take a thread 
nor a shoe latchet, nor aught that is thine, lest thou shouldst 
say "I have made Abram rich" (ch. 14: 21 — 23), certainly was 
not the man to make merchandise of the honor of his wife. God 
took charge of the prosperity of his servant, whom he had so 
recently called to himself, and of the honor of his wife; and 
he went up out of Egypt, with all his people and all that was 
his. 

CHAPTER XIII. 

VRS. 1 — 4. ABRAM RETURNS TO THE LAND OF CANAAN. (1919 Or 

1918 b. c.) 

1 And Abram went up out of Egypt, he, and his wife, and all that 
he had, and Lot with him, into the South. 

2 And Abram was very rich in cattle, in silver, and in gold. 

3 And he went on his journeys from the South even to Bethel, 
unto the place where his tent had been at the beginning, between 
Bethel and Ai, 

4 unto the place of the altar, which he had made there at the first : 
and there Abram called on the name of Jehovah. 

Abram, dismissed from Egypt, undoubtedly with the displeas- 



154 GENESIS 

ure of the king, and guarded by his soldiers until he had safely 
passed the frontier, went up into the South country, as the 
southern part of Canaan was called; so that he ''went up" 
thither, going from the low lands of Egypt to the hill country 
of Canaan, (Deut. 1: 7), and at the same time traveling north- 
ward, or rather N. E.; carrying with him his wife and all 
his possessions, and his nephew Lot, with all his, which were 
not small. And moving his encampment from point to point, 
traveling with their numerous herds and flocks, they arrived 
at last at Bethel, his old camping ground, between Bethel and 
Ai, where was still his altar; and there he called upon the name 
of Jehovah. 

13: 5 — 13. LOT SEPARATES FROM ABRAM. HIS WORLDLY ELECTION". 
(1918 (?) B. C.) 

5 And Lot also, who went with Abram, had flocks, and herds, and 
tents. 

6 And the land was not able to bear them, that they might dwell 
together : for their substance was great, so that they could not dwell 
together. 

7 And there was a strife between the herdsmen of Abram's cattle 
and the herdsmen of Lot's cattle : and the Canaanite and the Perizzite 
dwelt then in the land. 

8 And Abram said unto Lot, Let there be no strife, I pray thee, 
between me and thee, and between my herdsmen and thy herdsmen; 
for we are brethren. 

9 Is not the whole land before thee? separate thyself, I pray thee, 
from me : if thou wilt take the left hand, then I will go to the right ; 
or, if thou take the right hand, then I will go to the left. 

10 And Lot lifted up his' eyes, and beheld all the Plain of the 
Jordan, that it was well watered every where, before Jehovah de- 
stroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, like the garden of Jehovah, like the 
land of Egypt, as thou goest unto Zoar. 

11 So Lot chose him all the Plain of the Jordan ; and Lot jour- 
neyed east : and they separated themselves the one from the other. 

12 Abram dwelt in the land of Canaan, and Lot dwelt in the cities 
of the Plain, and moved his tent as far as Sodom. 

13 Now the men of Sodom were wicked and sinners against Jeho- 
vah exceedingly. 

It was the declared purpose of God to separate Abram from 
all his kindred, in order to educate him and his in the knowl- 
edge and obedience of Jehovah, whom he had only begun to 
know as his God. Terah's resolution to accompany him would 
have frustrated this purpose; but "Terah died in Haran," and 
Abram, leaving his brother Nahor in Haran, went forward into 
Canaan, for which he had started perhaps ten years before. 
Lot accompanied him; and a worldly spirit like his, with his 
separate and large encampment, imbued, doubtless, with the 
spirit of its chief, and over which Abram could not exercise 
due authority, or perhaps none at all, did not help forward the 



CHAPTER 13: 5—13 155 

divine purpose. But as the dilatory and fickle spirit of Terah 
detained him in Haran, so that he never arrived in Canaan, thus 
the worldly spirit of Lot separated him from Abram's side; 
and this same devotion of Lot to his worldly interests came to 
be his ruin. 

It is clear that at that time the land of Canaan was in great 
part unoccupied. As it was reputed to be among the best of known 
countries, it is undeniable that we have here a convincing 
proof that the deluge, at no very remote period, had left that 
"glory of all lands" (Ezek. 20: 6) empty and depopulated, and 
that it had only begun to be somewhat peopled again. Four 
hundred years later (Gen. 15: 13 — 16), the land was occupied 
by "seven nations greater and stronger" than the Israelites 
(Deut. 7:7), who then had possession of it. But at this time, 
Abram and Lot, with their immense nomadic encampments, 
went about with all liberty, "towards the north, and towards 
the south, and towards the east, and towards the west" (vr. 14), 
without anybody's making account of it. In fact, Abram said 
to Lot that the whole land was before him, to choose freely and 
at his pleasure the part which he liked best. Vr. 9. 

But while the land was plenty wide for Abram and the Canaan- 
ites, it seems that it was not enough so for Lot and his herds- 
men to live in peace and good fellowship with Abram and his 
people; and when the latter could no longer suffer the con- 
tentions of the herdsmen of their respective encampments — con- 
tentions which "the Canaanite and the Perrizite" saw with sur- 
prise, and perhaps with satisfaction, — Abram himself at last pro- 
posed that the two should separate. And so the temporal 
blessings of God were converted for the worldly Lot into a 
positive curse. Sad day it was for him in which, to increase 
his worldly estate, he separated from the tent and altar of his 
uncle, whom God had made the depository of the promises! It 
seems evident from the expostulation of Abram, that the rela- 
tions were becoming strained not only between the herdsmen of 
the two, but between the masters as well: "Let there be no 
strife, I pray thee, between me and thee, and between my herds- 
men and thy herdsmen; for we are brethren." Ch. 13: 8. Abram, 
always magnanimous, manifests here the incomparable supe- 
riority of his character, as contrasted with that of Lot. He was 
the elder, and was the prospective owner of all, by positive dona- 
tion from God; yet he left to his nephew the liberty of choosing 
lands at his pleasure, he being satisfied to take the part which 
Lot did not want. The Psalmist has said: "I am a companion 
of all them that fear thee, and of them that keep thy precepts" 



156 GENESIS 

(Ps. 119: 63); — a sentiment which Lot so lightly regarded, that, 
in an evil hour for himself he separated from the company 
of the only man in all the land (or all the earth?) who feared 
God and kept his precepts; and found that it was more con- 
genial to associate with the most reprobate of those pagan 
peoples, than to live in harmony and peace with his pious uncle, 
in whom all the families of the earth were to he blessed. 

Poor Lot! From the elevated mountain range, where the two 
stood, to the east of Bethel, he lifted up his eyes and surveyed the 
land spread out around them, and, fixing his gaze on the Plain 
of the Jordan, which in his eyes gleamed like a jewel, with its 
semi-tropical climate, away yonder, 4000 feet below them, fertile 
as the land of Egypt, whence they had just come, beautiful "as 
the garden of Jehovah" — the Eden of our first parents; instead 
of modestly insisting that Abram, being the older, should choose 
first, and without even asking his advice, he selfishly improved 
his opportunity, made a bad choice, and, enchanted with the 
view, he said in effect: "I go yonder; there is the land I 
choose for myself!" and leaving his uncle upon those high lands, 
he made haste to go down with his flocks and herds and 
his numerous retinue of servants, and dwelt among the Cities of 
the Plain; and kept on moving his encampment (vr. 5. Heo. his 
tent) till he came to Sodom; where he took a house and, as it 
would seem, a wife also. The text gives us to understand that 
he moved his encampment about from place to place in that 
superbly beautiful Plain, before he took the final resolution to 
make his home in Sodom. Impressive is the comment which 
the historian makes upon his ill-advised election: "But the 
men of Sodom were wicked and sinners against Jehovah exceed- 
ingly." Very numerous is the lineage of Lot, who still follow 
his footsteps in crowds. Lot left his flocks and herds amid the 
succulent pastures of the Plain; but he himself, abandoning the 
pure and simple customs of pastoral life, exchanged them for 
the soft and effeminate life of those semi-tropical cities, delivered 
up to the most detestable vices. "This was the iniquity of 
Sodom: pride, fulness of bread, and prosperous ease; * * 
neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and the needy." 
Ezek. 6: 49. 

[Note 20. — On the Plain of the Jordan, the Yale of Siddim, 
and the Cities of the Plain. Until a recent date it was univer- 
sally believed, and from times immemorial, that the Vale of 
Siddim (=plains, or fields), and the Cities of the Plain were 
situated in the southern part of what is now the Dead Sea, and 
also on the plain which extends eight or ten miles still farther to 



CHAPTER 13: 5—13 157 

the south; and that the "Plain of Jordan" not only reached to 
the Sea of Sodom (a name which I use preferentially, because 
it was not then a Dead Sea), hut in some way it embraced it, 
at least on one side, and extended to the south of it; so that "the 
Plain" was all one, whether of the Jordan or of the sea, there 
being easy communication between the north and south of it. 
But some scientific Englishmen, and notably Lieut. Conder, and 
other agents of the "Palestine Exploration Fund," have done their 
utmost to discredit this ancient belief, and to locate the Vale 
of Siddim with the five cities of the Plain all to the north or 
N. E. of the Sea of Sodom; where some recent maps locate them 
with an interrogation point, as an indication of doubt. But I 
believe that their efforts will prove in vain to destroy the old 
opinion, founded, not only on the uniform belief of Jews, Chris- 
tians and Mohammedans, but on Holy Scripture itself, and on au- 
thentic secular history as well. For the convenience of the reader, 
I will make this Note to embrace at one view the consideration of 
the "Plain of Jordan" (ch. 13: 10, 11; 1 Kings 7: 46), the "Cities 
of the Plain" (ch. 13: 12; 19: 29), and the "Vale of Siddim" (ch. 
14: 3, 8, 10), in order to save time and space, on account of the 
difficulty of considering them separately. 

The Biblical arguments offered in favor of this recent opinion 
seem to be: 1st. That the "Cities of the Plain" ought to be 
located in the "Plain of the Jordan." But this is a gratuitous 
assumption; the Bible always distinguishes between the two ex- 
pressions, and never says that the cities were of the "Plain of 
the Jordan" but only of "the Plain." See ch. 19: 17, 25, 28; com- 
pare ch. 13: 10, 11, 12. In Hebrew the word Tcikkar (— circuit, or 
surroundings) which we translate "plain," is exclusively used of 
this region of the Jordan and of the Sea of Sodom, except once, 
when it refers to surroundings (R. V. "plain") of Jerusalem 
(Neh. 12: 28), and the word is as applicable to the "surround- 
ings" or "circuit" of the sea, as to the "surroundings" or 
"circuit" of the Jordan; Gesenius translates it "the tract of the 
Jordan." We know from 1 Kings 7: 46 (R. V.), that this name 
("the plain of the Jordan") was given to the valley of the 
Jordan, 25 miles in a direct line to the north of the Salt or Dead 
Sea, between Succoth and Zerethan, at the brass-foundries of 
King Solomon; and this use of the word extended to its mouth, 
where it empties into the sea. But in the days of Lot, "the Plain" 
did not stop at the north of the sea; it continued in all its course, 
and even beyond that. 2nd. Another argument which is pre- 
sented with great confidence is, that (according to ch. 13: 10), 
from the top of the mountain chain near to Bethel, Lot could 



158 GENESIS 

"lift up his eyes and see all the Plain of the Jordan" as far as 
Zoar, if we locate it at the north of the sea, hut not, if at the 
south. The record, however, does not say that Lot could see as 
far as Zoar, but that "he lifted up his eyes and saw all the 
plain of the Jordan, that it was all well watered, etc., as thou 
goest unto Zoar" The words indicate the direction in which 
"thou goest," and not the point to which the sight of Lot 
reached. This singular phrase, used only six times in the Bible, 
(ch. 10: 19, twice; 10: 30; 13: 10; 25: 18; and 1 Sam. 15: 7) 
seems to indicate always the going in the direction of the point 
indicated. 3rd. With the same confidence they cite Deut. 34: 4, 
where it is said that from the top of Pisgah, on the east of the 
Jordan, before Jericho, Jehovah caused Moses to see all the land 
of promise from east to west and from north to south, "unto 
Zoar"; and it is argued that if Zoar was at the foot of Pisgah, 
(where they wish to locate it, to the north of the sea), Mose3 
could see it perfectly, whereas if it were at the south of the 
sea, the mountains of Moab would completely intercept the view. 
The error here is the same as in the former case; it is not said 
that Moses could see Zoar, any more than Lot; but "unto Zoar" 
indicates the southern limit, or south-eastern, of the prospect 
which the vision of the dying prophet embraced. Compare "unto 
Dan" (which did not then even exist, Judges 18: 29) in vr. 1 of 
the same passage: — "Unto Dan" on the north, and "unto Zoar" 
on the south. 
Some of the reasons against this new opinion are: 
1st. That ch. 14: 3 says of the Vale of Siddim (where was 
fought the battle of the four kings against the five, and where 
the "Cities of the Plain" were apparently located) "the same 
is the salt sea"; and that the newly proposed location is 
not, and never was. The Salt Sea, or Dead Sea, is 45 miles 
long by 10% wide; its surface is 1,300 feet below the level of 
the ocean, and it is skirted on both sides by mountain ranges 
which rise precipitately from its edge 1,500 to 2,500 feet high; 
the river Jordan entering on the north, and losing its fresh 
waters in those of the sea, which are of bitter and intolerable 
saltness. In its northern part, and in two-thirds of its length, the 
sea is from 1,100 to 1,300 feet deep, and the other third, towards 
the south, is very shallow, nowhere exceeding ordinarily twelve 
or fifteen feet in depth, and in years of drought it is fordable 
in many parts by caravans of camels, and even of loaded asses, 
which cross from the peninsula of Lisan to the eastern shore. 
It is believed, and it has always been believed, that in this 
part and in the plain to the south of the sea, were situated the 



CHAPTER 13: 5—13 159 

Vale of Siddim and the Cities of the Plain — a district some 
25 miles long by 10 or 12 broad. In this view of the case, it was 
very proper that Moses should write, "the Yale of Siddim, which 
is the Salt Sea." With regard to the northern part, from 1,000 
to 1,300 feet deep, this could never be said. To this it is re- 
plied that Moses did not write it thus; that verse 3 formed no 
part of the original writing. See Smith's Dictionary of the Bible, 
Article "Siddim." But this is a sheer assumption. In the days 
of Moses, 400 years after Lot, this place bore the name of the 
"Salt Sea" (see Num. 34: 3, 12; Deut. 3: 17), which formerly it 
did not have; so that Moses was as competent as any subsequent 
writer to add to his history the explanatory note that what had 
formerly been the "Vale of Siddim" was then "the Salt Sea." 

2nd. Ch. 14: 10 informs us that "the Vale of Siddim was 
full of slime pits," or pits of bitumen. These pits have entirely 
disappeared, due probably to the conflagration in the days of 
Lot; for there still are found great quantities of bitumen in the 
bottom of the sea, in its southern part, where it is believed that 
the Vale of Siddim and the Cities of the Plain were situated. 
Dr. Robinson says that at different epochs, chiefly after earth- 
quakes, the Arabs make a lucrative commerce in the bitumen 
they gather at the southern end of the sea; where it occasionally 
detaches itself from the bottom and floats on the surface of 
the waters. "After the earthquake of 1837, a large mass of 
bitumen (one said, like an island, another, like a house) was 
discovered floating on the sea, and was driven aground on the 
west side," "where the people swam to it and cut it in pieces with 
axes, so as to bring it ashore;" and it was sold at a valuation of 
several thousand dollars. The ancient Greeks and Romans also 
were acquainted with this peculiarity of the sea, and named it 
Asphaltites, or Asphaltic Lake. Dr. Robinson adds that this 
occurs only in the southern part, and never on the northern 
part, as far as he could inform himself from the Arabs. The 
asphalt is not found, he says, to the north of the sea, in the 
plains of Jericho, nor on the other side of Jordan; which appears 
plainly to indicate that the Vale of Siddim, with its five cities, 
was not situated there. Robinson's Biblical Researches, Vol. 2 pp. 
228—230 and 603—605. 

3rd. Zoar was saved from the common destruction at the 
petition of Lot, and was in plain view of Sodom, being so near, 
that Lot and his two daughters could pass from the one to the 
other between day-break and the rising of the sun. Ch. 19: 15, 
20, 23. Well then, Zoar continued to be a historic place, and well 
known under that name, for the space of 3,300 years, and was 



160 GENESIS 

not lost to sight, as a place of some importance until after the 
14th century of the Christian Era. Isaiah and Jeremiah both 
speak of it as belonging to the territory of Moab (Isa. 15: 5; 
Jer. 48: 34); and Mo&b had for its northern boundary the river 
Arnon, which fell into the Salt Sea at about midway of its length, 
opposite Engedi. It is therefore morally certain that, as Zoar 
was a part of Moab, it could not be situated to the north of the 
sea, 25 or 30 miles from the northern boundary of Moab. 

4th. Zoar is called Segor in the Greek translation of the LXX, 
and in the Latin Vulgate and the Roman Catholic translations 
made from the latter, and is called Zoghar by the Arabs till this 
day; it is mentioned by Josephus in the first century, by Ptolemy 
in the second century, by the fathers of the Church in the 
fourth and fifth centuries; and Jerome who describes its situation 
at the foot of the mountain range, says that it was then a place 
of importance with a Roman garrison and many inhabitants; 
and that it was the key to that mountain range to the east and 
S. E. of the Dead Sea. It is also mentioned by the Arab and 
Saracenic historians, and by the historians of the Crusades; 
and we have a detailed account of the route pursued by King 
Baldwin I., in the year 1100, on going from Hebron to Zoar, 
passing to the south of the sea, and finding it at the entrance 
of the mountains on the eastern side. With such an accumula- 
tion of data as Robinson gives at great length in his Biblical 
Researches (Vol. 2, pp. 480, etc.; 601, etc.; 648, 661), it seems 
to me that it is as arduous an enterprise as it is useless, to 
attempt to establish the new opinion. 

5th. The history of the expedition of Chedolaomar and his 
associates, which we have in ch. 14: 1 — 12, establishes the same 
fact; because the kings came from the north in quest of the five 
kings of these cities, who had rebelled against him. As they' 
came from the north, they would pass very near the cities if 
they were to the north of the sea. It is inconceivable, therefore, 
how, in that case, they should pass on 50 or 60 miles farther to 
the south, on the eastern side of the sea, and then doubling to the 
south of it, go up on the west side as far as Engedi, and descend 
1,500 feet to the sea itself, by the terrible defile of Hazazon-tamar, 
or Engedi, in order to find themselves there 25 or 30 miles to 
the south of the kings and the cities they came to subdue! The 
supposition is simply impossible. The public and ordinary road, 
then as now, crossed the Jordan on the north of the sea, in the 
vicinity of what was, at a later date, Jericho. There is where 
they ought to have sought them, if they were to the north of 
the sea. But it is very natural, in the supposition that the cities 



CHAPTER 13: 14—18 161 

and the Vale of Siddim were at the southern part of the sea, 
that they should go around on the south of the sea, reducing to 
subjection the tribes or peoples that might lend aid to those 
in insurrection, in order to fall suddenly upon them by the 
difficult defile of Engedi, which then had, as it now has, easy 
communication with the south and southeast of the sea. It is 
unnecessary to say that the catastrophe of Sodom and the other 
Cities of the Plain must have produced great and disastrous 
changes in the topography of that region; comparable before that 
with the garden of Eden, but now a frightful ruin. 

Of course Lot could not see all this stretch of river and sea 
from the top of the mountain range to the east of Bethel (comp. 
vr. 3 with ch. 12: 8); but Dr. Edward Robinson, the most care- 
ful and laborious of investigators, and whose work is still con- 
sidered a first authority, says: "It seems to be a necessary 
conclusion that the Dead Sea anciently covered a less extent 
of surface than at present. The cities which were destroyed must 
have been situated on the south of the lake as it then existed." 
"The fertile Plain, therefore, which Lot chose for himself, where 
Sodom was situated, and which was well watered, like the land of 
Egypt, lay also south of the lake, 'as thou comest unto Zoar.' 
Even to the present day, more living streams flow into the 
Ghor at the south end of the sea, from wadys of the eastern 
mountains, than are to be found so near together in all Pales- 
tine; and the tract, although mostly desert, is still better watered, 
through these streams, and by the many fountains, than any 
other district throughout the whole country." Biblical Re- 
searches. Vol. 2, pp. 602, 603.] 

13: 14—18. AFTER THE SEPARATION OF LOT FROM ABRAM, GOD 
REPEATS WITH AMPLIFICATIONS THE PROMISE ALREADY GTVEN TO 
HIS SERVANT. (1917 B. C.) 

14 And Jehovah said unto Abram, after that Lot was separated 
from him, Lift up now thine eyes, and look from the place where 
thou art, northward and southward and eastward and westward : 

15 for all the land which thou seest, to thee will I give it, and to 
thy seed for ever. 

16 And I will make thy seed as the dust of the earth : so that if 
a man can number the dust of the earth, then may thy seed also be 
numbered. 

17 Arise, walk through the land in the length of it and in the 
breadth of it ; for unto thee will I give it. 

18 And Abram moved his tent, and came and dwelt by the oaks of 
Mamre, which are in Hebron, and built there an altar unto Jehovah. 

As if by way of recompense for his noble unselfishness, and to 
rive him a signal manifestation of the divine approval, scarcely 
Lad Lot separated from his company and society, when Jehovah 



162 GENESIS 

anew repeated to Abram the promise already given, and with 
notable additions. From the top of the same elevated range 
where Lot allowed himself to be drawn away after worldly good, 
Jehovah told Abram to lift up his eyes towards the four car- 
dinal points, and said to him: "All the land which thou seest, to 
thee will I give it and to thy seed forever." He promised him 
also that his seed should be numerous, or better said, that it 
should be innumerable, as the sand of the sea; and bade him, as 
the lord of all, to walk through the length of it and the breadth 
of it, regarding it as his own, which his God had given him with 
irrevocable titles. 

The form and particularity and the constant repetition of this 
donation of that land to Abraham and to his seed "forever and 
ever" {Heb. "from eternity to eternity," and so rendered in 
Isaac Leeser's Jewish "Version) as Jeremiah twice repeats it, ia 
chs. 7: 7 and 25: 5, give us good reason to believe that the chil- 
dren of Abraham, so long dispossessed of the land which is their 
own by special donation of Him who is Maker and Lord of all, 
shall some day return into their own possession, in spite of the 
greatest opposition which their enemies, and their false friends 
may interpose. "If any of thine outcasts be driven out unto the 
outmost parts of heaven, from thence will Jehovah thy God 
gather thee, and from thence will he fetch thee; and Jehovah 
thy God will bring thee into the land which thy fathers possessed, 
and thou shalt possess it; and he will do thee good, and multiply 
thee above thy fathers." Deut. 30: 4, 5. 

What possible fulfilment this promise may have yonder, in the 
"New Heavens and the New Earth," in relation to the Jews, as 
one of "the nations" of the redeemed and saved, when "the 
leaves of the tree of life shall be for the healing of the nations" 
(Rev. 21: 24; 22: 2), we shall see when the time arrives and 
"the day of redemption" dawns; which the Lord, according to 
his promise, "will hasten in his time," and not ours. Isa. 60: 22. 
But there are many very clear and express promises of the 
restoration of Israel; — a restoration which is to be forever (Rom. 
11:23—29; Luke 21:24; Hos. 3:4, 5; Lev. 26:40—45; Jer. 
7:7; 31: 35 — 40) ; and which the Lord doubtless will fulfil in his 
own time and way. 

The Bible ideal of that "eternal salvation," of which the risen 
Christ "has become the Author, to all them that obey him" 
(Heb. 5: 9), — the "salvation ready to be revealed in the last 
time," "at the appearing of Jesus Christ" (1 Pet. 1: 5 — 7), is 
unquestionably that of renewed souls, reunited with renewed 
bodies, and dwelling in a renewed world. See Greek of Heb, 



CHAPTER 14: 1—12 163 

2: 5, — "the inhabited earth, the one that is to be"; of which 
Paul says (for I make no doubt that he was the author of this 
Epistle) that Christians were always speaking; — he himself had 
made no previous reference to the subject; and Peter says that 
he and his fellow believers were "looking for it, according to 
His promise." 2 Pet. 3: 13. And Paul says again, for it was 
often on his lips, that he also "waited for if with vehement 
desire, and the whole groaning creation (cursed for man's sin) 
as well. Rom. 8: 22, 23. There is therefore at least a possibility 
that, in a sense we cannot now clearly comprehend, Abraham 
may yet dwell at home in the land in which he lived and died 
"a stranger."* Stephen says that God promised "that he would 
give it to him for a possession, and to his seed after him, when 
as yet he had no child." Acts 7: 5. 

We do not know how many journeys Abram would make in 
viewing this his God-given land; but he continued to move his 
encampment (Heb. his tent — his tents), until he came and dwelt 
in the oak grove of Mamre (who, together with his two brothers 
Eschol and Aner, were allies of Abraham, ch. 14: 13 — 24), near 
Hebron; a favorite place of residence for the patriarch; and : 
as always, "he builded there an altar to Jehovah." Oh magnan- 
imous and faithful man! 

CHAPTER XIV. 

VES. 1 — 12. THE COALITION OF THE KINGS. LOT IS TAKEN CAPTIVE. 

(1903 B. C.) 

1 And it came to pass in the days of Amraphel king of Shinar, 
Ariocli king of Ellasar, Chedorlaomer king of Elam, and Tidal king 
of Goiim.* 

2 that they made war with Bera king of Sodom, and with Birsha 
king of Gomorrah, Shinab king of Admah, and Shemeber king of 
Zeboim, and the king of Bela (the same is Zoar). 

3 All these joined together in the vale of Siddim (the same is the 
Salt Sea). 

*Or, Nations. 

* Calvin closes his comment on Matt. 5 : 5 with the statement that 
"at the resurrection the meelc will be put into everlasting inheritance of 
the earth." In his Institutes, he cites "the example of Jacob, who to 
testify to his posterity that the hope of the promised land did not forsake 
Jiis heart even in death, commands his hones to be reconveyed thither. 
Book III, Ch. 25, Sec. 8. And in this chapter, as well as in the ninth of 
this Book, he teaches with every possible form of reiteration, that "God 
will restore the world, now fallen, into perfection." Luther abounds in 
the same representation of Christ's coming kingdom of righteousness and 
life eternal. John Knox likewise, and Samuel Rutherford. See also 
Richrd Baxter's Saint's Everlasting Rest, Ch. 3, on the Preparatives 
for the Saints' Promised Rest, and Chalmer's famous sermon on The New 
Heavens and the New Earth. — Tr. 



164 GENESIS 

4 Twelve years they served Chedorlaomer, and in the thirteenth 
year they rebelled. 

5 And in the fourteenth year came Chedorlaomer, and the kings 
that were with him, and smote the Rephaim in Ashteroth-karnaim, and 
the Zuzim in Ham, and the Emim in Shaveh-kiriathaim, 

6 and the Horites in their mount Seir, unto Elparan, which is by 
the wilderness. 

7 And they returned, and came to En-mishpat (the same is 
Kadesh), and smote all the country of the Amalekites, and also the 
Amorites, that dwelt in Hazazon-tamar. 

8 And there went out the king of Sodom, and the king of Gomor- 
rah, and the king of Admah, and the king of Zeboim, and the king 
of Bela (the same is Zoar) ; and they set the battle in array against 
them in the vale of Siddim ; 

9 against Chedorlaomer king of Elam, and Tidal king of Goiim, 
and Amraphel king of Shinar, and Arioch king of Ellasar ; four kings 
against the five. 

10 Now the vale of Siddim was full of slime pits ; and the kings 
of Sodom and Gomorrah fled, and they fell there, and they that re- 
mained fled to the mountain. 

11 And they took all the goods of Sodom and Gomorrah, and all 
their victuals, and went their way. 

12 And they took Lot, Abram's brother's son, who dwelt in Sodom, 
and his goods, and departed. 

In former times infidels laughed at such, a coalition of Oriental 
kings, and their invasion of lands a thousand or twelve hundred 
miles distant from their own. But in our day the monuments 
of Assyria and Babylon (as also those of Egypt), with their 
inscriptions and paintings, come to accredit in the most surpris- 
ing manner the Bible history. Those peoples of the Tigris and 
Euphrates, faithful to the traditions of Nimrod, the first founder 
of empires, extended their conquests as far as the coasts of the 
Mediterranean Sea. But it was not Amraphel the king of Shinar, 
or Babylon, who led this expedition, but rather Chedorlaomer king 
of Elam, the ancient Persia. And this is in surprising agree- 
ment with the ancient inscriptions of Assyria, and those found 
in El Mugheir (— Ur of the Chaldees, the ancient city of Abram 
and his father Terah), which, frequently speak of a powerful line 
of kings of Elam, one of whom extended his empire from the 
south of Chaldea to the Mediterranean Sea (whose name, Kurdur- 
mabuk, resembles not a little this of Genesis) : his empire ex- 
tended 500 miles from north to south and more than 1,000 miles 
from east to west. Geike's Hours with the Bible. Vol. 1, pp. 286, 
287. 

The city of Nimrod apparently suffered a terrible blow at the 
epoch of the confusion of tongues, so that they not only desisted 
from their enterprise of the tower, but, as is said in Gen. 11: 8. 
"they ceased to build the city" as well; which for a long time 
remained a place of secondary importance. It is therefore a 
remarkable coincidence, which confirms in a wonderful way the 



CHAPTER 14: 1—12 165 

veracity and minute accuracy of the Biblical history, that Moses 
should represent the king of Elam as he who commanded in 
this campaign, and that the other kings (including the king 
of Shinar, or Babylon), should be represented as associates, or 
vassals, who united with him to recover the dominion which 
fourteen years before he had established in the land of Canaan. 

On account of the impassable character of the desert of Arabia, 
or Syria, which lies interposed between Babylon and Canaan, 
they had to make a long detour of more than a thousand miles, 
going first N. W., to the fords of the Euphrates, and then S. W., 
subduing by the way Hamath and Damascus; and then, passing 
down to the east of the Jordan and the Salt Sea, they went around 
the latter to the south, subduing in their route the Rephaim, 
the Zuzim, the Emim — reputed to be giants (Deut. 2: 10, 11) — 
and the Horites, in what was afterwards the mountain country 
of Seir, or Edom, to the south of the Salt Sea, until they arrived 
at El Paran (where the Israelites, coming up out of Egypt, 
stopped a long while, and from whence they sent the explorers 
to reconnoitre the land, Num. 10: 12, 16; 13: 3); desolating what 
was afterwards the country of the Amalakites, and next subduing 
the Amorites who dwelt in the hill country to the south of 
Hebron; and then penetrating through the rocky defile of Hazon- 
tamar to Engedi (2 Chron. 20: 2) ; they gave battle "in the Vale 
of Siddim (which is the Salt Sea)," where the five kings of 
Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, Zeboim and Zoar had combined their 
forces for defence against the common enemy. We are informed, 
in passing, that the Vale of Siddim was "full of slime pits," or 
pits of bitumen; a circumstance which is of great interest to us 
when we come to consider the catastrophe of Sodom; but we 
do not see that it has anything to do with this history, unless it 
give us to understand that these pits of bitumen had some con- 
nection with the defeat of the king of Sodom and his allies, owing 
perhaps, to this peculiarity of the field of battle. The five kings 
"fell there" (which probably means 'that they died there), and 
the remnants of their army took refuge in the mountains; which 
to the east and west inclose the sea in all its length. 

The four explanatory parentheses which we have in this para- 
graph, and one more which occurs in vr. 17, may indicate that 
this chapter was an ancient document, already so old in the 
days of Moses that the names of several of the places mentioned 
called for explanations. The "Vale of Siddim" in the days of 
Moses had been converted into the "Salt Sea"; "Bela" was then 
called "Zoar"; "En-mishpat" was in the days of Moses "Kadesh," 
well known by that name when the children of Israel came up, 



166 GENESIS 

out of Egypt. Num. 13: 2G; 20: 1, 14, 16, 22. It seems therefore 
probable that Moses did not write the antiquated form, and then 
add by way of explanation the name universally known in his 
day. But the parenthesis of vr. 17 is different from the others., 
and marks the interposition of a hand much later than the days 
of Moses: the "Vale of Shaveh (which is the King's Vale)." It 
was there, 900 years later, that the unhappy Absalom erected a 
pillar to his own memory, saying: "I have no son to preserve the 
memory of my name." 2 Sam. 18: 18. It is very important that 
the reader should bear in mind that though Moses was un- 
doubtedly the author of the books of the Bible, which bear his 
name, to which fact Jesus himself gives his solemn attestation 
(John 5: 45, 47), nevertheless his books, like some other books 
of the Bible, bear unmistakable indications of explanations and 
additions made many ages after the death of the author; as we 
shall have occasion to note farther on, just as in this case. 

Of the allied kings associated with Chedorlaomer, there are 
two, Arioch king of Ellasar, and Tidal king of Nations (or of 
Goyim) of whom, or rather, of whose peoples, we can give no 
account. Ellasar is supposed by some to be the same as Sarsa 
in lower Babylon, called now Senkereh. "King of nations" is a 
title which we meet with in the list of the thirty-one kings of 
Canaan subdued by Joshua; Josh. 12: 23, with a probable allusion 
to the mixture of races, or nations, from whom "Galilee of the 
Nations" took name. Isa. 9:1; Matt. 4: 15, 16. It is possible 
that Tidal was one of these kings who had been subdued by 
Chedorlaomer fourteen years before, who had remained faithful 
to him when the five kings of the Cities of the Plain rebelled, 
and that, in passing by, the king of Elam brought him with 
his other vassals to the war. Others understand that "Goiim," 
or Goyim (= nations) was some people of the Orient, whose king 
Chedorlaomer brought with him. 

14: 13 — 16. ABBAM GOES OUT TO WABJ DEFEATS THE FOUB KINGS; 
LIBEBATES LOT AND THE OTHEB CAPTIVES; AND BECOVEES ALL THE 
PBEY. (1913 B. C.) 

13 And there came one that had escaped, and told Abrain the 
Hebrew: now he dwelt by the oaks of Mamre, the Amorite, brother 
of Eshcol, and brother of Aner ; and these were confederate with 
Abram. 

14 And when Abram heard that his brother was taken captive, he 
led forth his trained men, born in his house, three hundred and 
eighteen, and pursued as far as Dan. 

15 And he divided himself against them by night, he and his ser- 
vants, and smote them, and pursued them unto Hobah, which is on the 
left hand* of Damascus. 

*Or, north. 



CHAPTER 14: 17—24 167 

16 And he brought back all the goods, and also brought back hi3 
brother Lot, and his goods, and the women also, and the people. 

Some one who escaped carried to the encampment of Abram 
intelligence of the war, and of the captivity of Lot. Abram, 
with that lofty spirit of decision and prompt action which char- 
acterized him, had hardly received the sad tidings of his nephew 
when he armed and drew forth from among his servants, skilled 
in the use of arms (for the defence of his encampment) 318 
soldiers, all young men (vr. 24), and went out to war. He took 
with him three Amorite princes, allies of his, and all brothers, 
Vr. 24. It is interesting to notice how this "friend of God," with- 
out compromising in any degree his character and conscience, 
held relations of friendship with these pagans, among whom he 
lived; and with these three brothers, Mamre, Aner and Eshcol 
he had an offensive and defensive treaty. With this force he 
followed after the invading army, which went homewards, flushed 
with victory, conscious of security and loaded with the immense 
booty they had captured; and overtaking them in the north of 
Canaan, at the place that was afterwards called Dan, near to the 
waters of Merom, he divided his forces, and falling upon them 
by night, defeated them completely, and pursued them with the 
sword as 'far as Hobah, to the north of Damascus. Before the 
discovery of the mariner's compass, the east — the point where the 
sun rises — was to them what the north is to us; so that "the 
left of Damascus" means to say the north. And thus, this man 
of peace, who made war to liberate his nephew and not for any 
other purpose, brought back everything, the goods, the women, 
and the people. 

14: 17 — 24. ABEAM, MELCHIZEDEK AND THE NEW KING OF SODOM. 
(1913 B. C.) 

17 And the king of Sodom went out to meet him, after his return 
from the slaughter of Chedorlaomer and the kings that were with 
him, at the vale of Shaveh (the same is the King's Vale). 

18 And Melchizedek king of Salem brought forth bread and wine : 
and he was priest of God Most High. 

19 And he blessed him, and said, Blessed be Abram of God Most 
High, possessor of heaven and earth : 

20 and blessed be God Most High, who hath delivered thine enem- 
ies into thy hand. And he gave him a tenth of all. 

21 And the king of Sodom said unto Abram, Give me the persons, 
and take the goods to thyself. 

22 And Abram said to the king of Sodom, I have lifted up my 
hand unto Jehovah, God Most High, possessor of heaven and earth, 

23 that I will not take a thread nor a shoe-latchet nor aught that 
is thine, lest thou shouldest say, I have made Abram rich : 

24 save only that which the young men have eaten, and the portion 
of the men that went with me, Aner, Eshcol, and Mamre ; let them 
take their portion. 



168 GENESIS 

Verse 10 informs us that "the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah 
fled, and fell there; and the rest fled to the mountains," which on 
the east side rise from 2,500 to 3,000 feet above the waters of the 
sea; the mountains of the west being less elevated. It is almost 
a certain inference that "fell there" means that they died there; 
and as the invaders sacked, but did not burn the cities, by the 
time of Abram's return the scattered people would have begun to 
reorganize once more. The new king of Sodom, therefore, went 
forth to receive Abram, as far as the Vale of Shaveh, which was 
afterwards called the King's Vale (2 Sam. 18: 18, near to Jeru- 
salem, where Melchizedek was king), and he accorded to him the 
honors corresponding to his great victory, and the acknowledg- 
ments which were his due. He would have been well satisfied 
with the restitution of the captives, among whom probably were 
to be reckoned some of his own family; and so he proposed to 
Abram that he should return the persons and keep for himself 
the goods. But this great man, whose detractors would attribute 
to him the baseness of making merchandise of the honor of his 
wife in Egypt, to increase his goods, manifests here a nobility 
of spirit to which they are strangers; and though he had the 
right, as conqueror, to retain all that immense booty, and the 
liberated persons as well, he renounces this right, and insists on 
returning everything to its owners, nor permits that the king of 
Sodom, or anybody else, should say: "I made Abram rich!" — 
excepting only the part which the young men, his soldiers, had 
eaten, and the portion which fell to his allies, Aner, Eshcol and 
Mamre. 

But another more illustrious and worthy person than the king 
of Sodom went forth to receive Abram, when so near to his 
city, viz., Melchizedek, king of Salem, who was also "priest of 
God Most High;" and he brought forth bread and wine to refresh 
the weary conquerors. Contrary to our use, "bread and wine" 
represents a collation, or slight repast. See Ruth 2: 14; Judges 
19: 19; Neh. 5: 15. He also blessed Abram — the proper office of a 
priest; and Abram, in acknowledgment of his official superiority 
(Heb. 7: 7), and as a sign of his gratitude to God Most High, 
of whom the other was a priest, gave him the tenth of all the 
spoils. Heb. 7: 1, 4. 

Who then was this mysterious person, who thus suddenly 
presents himself as a priest-king, or a king-priest (a priest not 
of idols, but of God Most High), at a time when we supposed 
that the knowledge of the true God had perished out of the 
earth? The question is of itself difficult enough; for there is a 
moral certainty that Salem (or Jerusalem, Ps. 76: 2), neither 



CHAPTER 14: 17—24 169 

before nor after Abram's day, nor till the reign of David, was a 
city of righteousness, nor were its people the servants of the true 
God. But what cOmes to increase the difficulty is what is said 
about him in other parts of Scripture, and particularly in Ps. 
110: 4, and Heb. 7: 1 — 10; in the first of which king David (as 
Jesus himself gives testimony in Matt. 22: 43 — 45; Mark 12: 35— 
37; Luke 20: 41 — 44), says prophetically, to him who was to be 
at once his Son and his Lord: "Jehovah hath sworn and will 
not repent [that is, will not change his purpose], Thou art a 
priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek" (Ps. 110: 4); and 
in the other, Paul says that this pre-eminent type of Christ was 
acknowledged to be greater than Abraham, who received the 
promises, and greater than the priests and Levites of the Mosaic 
law, who paid tithes to Melchizedek in the person of their father 
Abraham. Who then was Melchizedek, and what was the order 
of his priesthood, according to which the Messiah was to be at 
once a priest and a king? 

The common opinion of the Jews with regard to this mysterious 
person is that Melchizedek was no other than Shem, the son of 
Noah, who, according to the common chronology, was the con- 
temporary of Abraham for 150 years. But this opinion of theirs 
is in open conflict with what the apostle says in Heb. 7: 3, 
"without father, without mother," etc., — that is, none known to 
us. For this reason others suppose that it was Christ himself, 
who on more than one occasion appeared by way of anticipation 
in human form, before his incarnation. Gen. 18: 1, 2, 22; Josh. 5: 
13 — 15. But this is equally in conflict with the argument of the 
apostle, and with the declaration of the Psalmist, and the oath 
of God; for it does not seem possible he means to say that 
Messiah, — the Priest-King, was constituted high priest according 
to the order of himself. It is therefore probable that the opinion 
of the Jewish historian Josephus is correct, to wit, that Melchize- 
dek was a pious king of Salem — which later was called Jerusalem 
— one of the very few who (like Job, who was both a priest and a 
prince, Job 1: 5, 8 and 29: 25) remained in that day with the 
knowledge and worship of the true God; whose superiority, as 
king, Abram readily confessed, and whose true priesthood he 
cheerfully recognized. The pretension of the Roman Catholic 
priests to base an argument for the payment of tithes to them, 
upon the example of Abram in giving to this priest of God Most 
High the tenth part of the spoils taken in war, does not deserve 
an examination, cs the revenue system of Jesus Christ and the 
usage of the apostolic Church was that of voluntary contributions 
(as Cavalario expressly teaches in his Canon Law Part II. ch. 



170 ' GENESIS 

34) ; this also being the rule which Paul lays down in 2 Cor. 9:7: 
"Let every one give according as he hath purposed in his heart, 
not grudgingly nor of necessity; for God loveth a cheerful giver." 
Had it not been for the tithes and other enforced contributions 
of the Romish church, it would never have been able to enslave 
the nations, and corrupt so horribly as it has done the religion 
of Christ. 

That other pretension of theirs, that Melchizedek, as a pre- 
eminent type of Jesus Christ, brought forth bread and wine, not 
to refresh the wearied soldiers of Abram, but to offer a sacrifice, 
in prefiguration of the so-called "sacrifice of the Mass" (although 
they corrupt the text in order to maintain it), merits still les3 
consideration. Let them go and learn from the mouth of Paul 
in the Epistle to the Hebrews, chs. 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9, that Christ 
is the only Priest of his people; that his priesthood is intransmis- 
sible; and that the Sacrifice of Calvary, accomplished once only 
and forever, can neither be repeated nor continued; and let them 
dismiss from their minds the impious pretension of repeating or 
continuing that sacrifice 100,000 times every day, upon the altars 
of their own invention, in all parts of papal Christendom. 

CHAPTER XV. 

VES. 1 — 6. GOD EENEWS AND CONFIRMS HIS PEOMISE TO ABRAM. 

(1911 B. C.) 

1 After these things the word of Jehovah came unto Abram in a 
vision, saying, Fear not, Abram : I am thy shield, and thy exceeding 
great reward. 

2 And Abram said, O Lord Jehovah, what wilt thou give me, see- 
ing I go childless, and he that shall be possessor of my house is 
Eliezer* of Damascus? 

3 And Abram said, Behold, to me thou hast given no seed; and, 
lo, one born in my house is mine heir. 

4 And, behold, the word of Jehovah came unto him, saying, This 
man shall not be thine heir ; but he that shall come forth out of thine 
own bowels shall be thine heir. 

5 And he brought him forth abroad, and said, Look now toward 
heaven, and number the stars, if thou be able to number them : and he 
said unto him, So shall thy seed be. 

6 And he believed in Jehovah ; and he reckoned it to him for right- 
eousness. 

[*A. V. and M. 8. V., this Eliezer.] 

"After these things," means after this war and its results, nar- 
rated in the preceding chapter. After such a heroic feat of arms, 
Abram himself would be filled with wonder at his daring, and 
his reckless valor; and the more he reflected upon it, the more 
it would be likely to disturb his tranquillity of spirit, to consider 



CHAPTER 15: 1—6 171 

the possible consequences of it; and for this reason he had 
the tranquillizing vision with which he was favored by his God. 
"The word of the Lord came to Abram," is in Hebrew "there was 
a word (or thing) -from Jehovah to Abram, saying"; which is the 
usual form of saying that Abram received a divine communication, 
a supernatural revelation, from Jehovah; as Gesenius explains 
it in his Hebrew Lexicon. [M. S. V. — Abraham had in vi- 
sion a revelation from Jehovah, which said, etc.] This 
revelation was made in vision; the first perhaps which 
Abram received in this form. It is interesting and im- 
portant to notice in this history not only the development 
and expansion of the first and fundamental promise of human re- 
demption, but also the distinct progression we can observe in the 
forms of that revelation, until at length God in human flesh came 
into the world "to bear witness unto the truth." John 18: 37. To 
this march or progression in the divine revelation the apostle 
refers in Heb. 1: 1, 2: "God who at sundry times and in divers 
manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, 
hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son." I follow 
the A. V. here, the R. V. being almost unintelligible. The Mod. 
Span. Version reads: "God having spoken in former times untc 
the fathers, on many different occasions, and in many different 
ways, by the prophets, hath in these, the last days, spoken untc 
us by his Son." We shall note in these Studies some of these 
"many different occasions" and "many different ways." 

It has always been the usage of God to avail himself of the 
critical junctures in the history of his people, to give them the 
most notable revelations of his will and of his love. In this case 
Abram had cause enough to believe that the powerful king of 
Elam would not abandon the enterprise which had been frus- 
trated by a successful night attack on the part of Abram and his 
associates, but on the contrary would return in another campaign 
to make them pay dearly for their rash act, into which Abraham 
had been precipitated by his love for his nephew; and without 
doubt also by a special divine impulse. At such a juncture, there- 
fore, this new revelation would serve to quiet his apprehensions and 
take away every cause of alarm: "Fear not, Abram; I am thy 
shield and thy exceeding great reward!" Precious promise! God 
not only will defend and reward his people, but he will himself 
be their shield and reward! And it is a remarkable fact, con- 
firmed by the monuments already cited, that, for some cause, 
Chedorlaomer and his powerful vassals, or allies, did not any 
more return to subdue his revolted provinces. 

The reply of Abram manifests that he was not so much con- 



172 GENESIS 

cerned about the invaders, as about his own unhappy condition; 
a man rich and great, who had enough and to spare, except a 
son and an heir: "Oh Lord Jehovah, what wilt thou give me" 
(or what canst thou give me), "seeing that I go childless, and 
he that shall be possessor of my house is this Eliezer of Damas- 
cus?" (the only suggestion we have that Abram had ever been in 
Damacus) ; — "this Eliezer of Damascus" whom he seems to 
mention almost with bitterness.* 

There is no doubt that slavery existed in the family of Abram, 
as everywhere else in that day, and Abram had servants bought 
with his money, in addition to those born in his house (ch. 17: 
13, 27) ; but we cannot fail to see that it was a form of slavery 
incomparably more benign than that which existed among the 
Greeks and Romans, and than that of the negro races which we 
have known in modern times, when we see Samuel seat the 
servant of Saul at the table beside his master (1 Sam. 9:2), and 
when we hear Abram speak of his servant as his presumptive 
heir. Such a thing was not without example in ancient times. 
In 1 Chron. 2: 34, 35, we read of one "Sheshan who had no sons, 
but daughters. And Sheshan had a servant (or slave), an 
Egyptian, whose name was Jarha. And Sheshan gave his daugh- 
ter to Jarha to wife"; — a case which well matches this, and 
comes in to explain the thought of Abraham. 

Up to that time God had promised to give him that land, — 
to him and to his seed, and that his seed should be numerous 
as the dust of the earth; but how and when he had not said. It 
is certain that till then — as vr. 4 shows — he had not promised him 
a true and proper son of his own (Eliezer would have been his 
son by adoption) ; and no doubt the mind of Abram was greatly 
exercised upon this point, as the tone almost of upbraiding, 
with which he replies, seems to indicate. But again he had a 
revelation from Jehovah, which cleared up completely the case, 
giving him to understand that not his servant Eliezer, but a son. 
of his own should be his heir. Still the problem of the how and 
the when remained without resolution, even when he brought 
him forth and told him to count the stars of heaven, if he was 
able, and said to him: "So shall thy seed her It was and is 
manifestly the purpose and will of God that his people should 
believe his promises and count upon their entire fulfilment, 
without entering upon inquiries as to the how and the when. 
Thus it was with Abram, according to verse 6: "And he be- 

*I can find no explanation of the fact that Abraham speaks of "this 
Damascene Eliezer ;" as "one born in my house ;" or, on the other hand, 
why "a home-born slave" should be called a "Damascene." — Tr. 






CHAPTER 15: 1—6 173 

lieved in Jehovah; and he reckoned it to him for righteousness." 
This phrase which plays so notable a part in Paul's argument 
on justification by faith, aside from legal works, in Rom. ch. 4: 
and Gal. 3: 6, and which James likewise repeats in James 2: 23, 
is well deserving of particular attention on our part. Paul cites 
the passage according to the Greek translation of the LXX: 
"Abraham believed God," which ought not to invalidate at all 
the Hebrew form "believed in Jehovah," nor does it indicate that 
Paul preferred the former. He cited the passage as he found it in 
the Greek Bible of the Hellenists, or Greek-speaking Jews, as 
that expressed the sense sufficiently well to serve his purpose. 
We do the same thing, even when we know that the translation 
is not entirely correct. Divine inspiration did not oblige the 
apostle to correct the defects of the Version in common use, any 
more than honesty requires it of us. It would have been a thing 
as unseemly in him to go about correcting the Greek text, when- 
ever he cited it, as is the same insufferable habit with certain 
preachers in our day. Abram, then, believed in Jehovah, and 
not merely believed him in regard to the promise made. The 
Hebrew says literally "Abram stayed himself on Jehovah"; and 
this expresses the true difference between the mere assent of the 
understanding, and a true and living faith: he received the 
promise, and stayed himself on Jehovah (or leaned on him) for 
its fulfilment; and as this pleases God more than all our own 
best works (John 6: 28, 29), Jehovah looked upon it, as he al- 
ways looks upon it, with supreme pleasure and satisfaction, and 
"he counted it to him for righteousness," — the best righteousness 
we can have, and that which honors and glorifies God more than 
all the so-called "works of righteousness which we have done" 
(Tit. 3:5), and without which the best works of men cannot 
please God; for "without faith it is impossible to please him," 
Heb. 11: 6. 

The example of Abram (especially as Paul by divine inspiration 
explains it in the fourth chapter of Romans), leaves little to 
desire in point of clearness, with regard to the use of this 
phrase. Abram was a sinner; he had been an idolater; in Egypt 
he had distrusted the divine protection to the point of denying 
his own wife, and exposed her to the greatest dangers; and in 
order to commit this unseemly action he had grievously per- 
verted the truth, and had entangled his own wife in the same 
falsehood (like another Ananias and Sapphira, Acts 5: 2 — 9), in 
saying that they were brother and sister, rather than husband 
and wife. What righteousness, then, could a sinful man like 
him have towards God? None; that is evident. But this con- 



174 GENESIS 

verted pagan, this sinful man, who through human weakness lied, 
and made his wife to take part in his falsehood; who repeated 
it still another time, with even less excuse, and confessed to 
Abimelech, king of Gerar, that for 20 or 25 years the two had 
between them a standing agreement to persist in the same false- 
hood, whenever it seemed necessary for his safety (ch. 20: 2 — 
12); how could he be reputed as righteous with God? and 
where shall we find virtuous actions sufficient to make this man 
(stained with such imperfections) "the friend of God?" James 
explains the case perfectly where he says: "and the Scripture was 
fulfilled which saith: And Abram believed God, and it was 
reckoned to him for righteousness; and he was called the 
friend of God." James 2: 23. Abram believed Jehovah, and he 
believed in Jehovah — the rarest virtue that is found among men; 
this Abram had in a pre-eminent degree, and this was his chief 
title to distinction. The same thing happens with all the true 
children of Abraham — sinners all, who are distinguished from 
other men not so much by the pre-eminence of their virtues 
and good works (although in general they have this distinction 
also), but because, living in the midst of a world of them that 
"know not God, and obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus 
Christ," they believe God, and believe in God — not any kind of 
God, but him who reveals himself to us in his word; and their 
works accredit the sincerity of their faith. It was for this, and 
not for his magnificent virtues and his magnanimity and great- 
ness of spirit, — it was for this, that Abraham was regarded and 
treated as righteous; and for this also shall be justified (that 

IS TO SAY, EEGAEDED AND TREATED AS RIGHTEOUS), although Con- 
fessed sinners, "all those who walk in the steps of the faith of 
our father Abraham"; those who believe God and believe in God; 
not as he is according to their own caprice and notion, nor 
that of others, nor according as is taught in their church, or 
synagogue, or society, or country, but according as he has re- 
vealed himself to us by means of his prophets and apostles, and 
by the mouth of his own Son, in his holy word. 

Before leaving this paragraph, two more things claim our at- 
tention: 

1st. The words "So (like the stars) shall thy seed be" (vr. 
5), and its equivalent, many times repeated, "innumerable as the 
sand which is upon the sea shore." Astronomers tell us that 
there are only about 3,000 stars visible to the naked eye; but 
with the aid of the most powerful telescopes, 80,000,000; while 
beyond these in the depths of infinite space are to be seen 
splotches or cloudlets of light, which indicate perhaps systems 



CHAPTER 15: 1—6 175 

of thousands, or millions, of stars, which cannot be individualized 
on account of their inconceivable distance. Both phrases, then, 
represent a number which almost touches upon the infinite. 
"So shall thy seed be!" But the Jews in our day, scattered 
through all the nations, and kept for some great providential 
end, do not exceed, at the utmost, and by the largest estimates, 
eight or ten millions; and this, some 4,000 years after that 
promise was made! Shall we say then that the promise of God 
has failed? On the contrary, how evident it is that this promise 
does not refer to the Jews, the natural descendants of Abraham, 
as such! 

Paul, treating of this subject in Rom. 4: 9 — 32, under the 
guidance of the Spirit of inspiration, joins in one all the promises 
made to Abraham, and fixes attention on the form of them given 
in ch. 17: 5, when God changed his name from Abram into 
Abraham: "A father of many nations have I made thee"; and he 
treats the two promises, the temporal and the spiritual, as identi- 
cal: "Who against hope, believed in hope, that he might become 
the father of many nations, according to that which had been 
told him: So (like the stars) shall thy seed be!" which must 
undoubtedly mean "all the families of the earth" of ch. 12: 3, 
who were to be blessed in Abraham. These nations we can now 
see are not Jews, nor Englishmen, nor Spaniards, nor Germans ; 
nor Russians, nor Chinese, nor Japanese, of this present world; 
but rather those too much forgotten nations of the redeemed, of 
whom the last two chapters of the Revelation, with its pictures 
of redemption completed, gives us particular information, in the 
"New Heavens and New Earth wherein dwelleth righteousness." 
The passage plainly treats of the Christian redemption, and seems 
to fix its eye on that coming and eternal Age of righteousness 
and life eternal, with its nations of redeemed men, who shall 
be the fruit of the travail of our Redeemer's soul (Isa. 53: 11), — 
"the joy which was set before him," in consideration of which 
"he endured the cross and despised the shame," and now awaits its 
entire fulfilment, "seated at the right hand of God." Heb 12: 2; 
10: 12, 13. 

2nd. It is a very common opinion (as I have already said, and 
now repeat it) among evangelical persons that Abraham, looking 
down the vista of coming ages, saw in distant view Christ 
hanging upon the cross, and by faith in this Redeemer, yet to 
come, was justified and saved. But this is undoubtedly an error. 
Paul treats at length of the faith of Abraham which was counted 
to him for righteousness, and in which Abraham was justified 
and saved, and he says not a word about any such thing. The 



176 GENESIS 

common idea that Abraham and the ancient saints believed in a 
suffering Saviour who was to come, as we believe in such a 
Saviour, who has already come, is an empty imagination of which 
it would be well to rid our minds. In case it were so, John the 
Baptist, and the apostles, with all God's pious servants in our 
Lord's day, would have expected that Christ "ought to suffer and 
enter (thus) into his glory," instead of understanding nothing 
at all about it, in spite of all the admonitions of the divine 
Master, until after it was all accomplished, and he was risen from 
among the dead. Luke 18: 33, 34; 24: 25, 26, 45, 46. This, of 
itself, is enough to refute that ill-founded notion. Abraham and 
all the saints of the old times Relieved in Jehovah as their Re- 
deemer, and believed all that he revealed to them; and Paul, 
treating expressly of this subject, teaches us, not that Abraham 
was justified and his faith was counted to him for righteousness, 
in reference to the promise of a Christ sacrificed and risen, but 
in reference to the promise that he should he the -father of a 
multitude of nations, and that his seed should be as the stars of 
heaven for multitude, and as the dust of the earth: and Abraham, 
making no account of the innumerable natural difficulties that 
opposed its fulfilment, but "looking to the promise of God, 
wavered not through unbelief, but was strong in faith, giving 
glory to God, and fully persuaded that what he had promised 
he was able also to perform; and therefore it was counted to him 
for righteousness.'" Rom. 4: 19 — 22. It is evident that the 

PROMISE WAS THAT OF THE CHRISTIAN REDEMPTION ', but it is no leSS 

evident that the faith of Abraham was occupied with the results 
of it rather than with the means. We Christians have clearly set 
before us, if we will see it, both the results and the means; and 
for this reason the apostle adds that "it shall be counted to us 
also, if we believe in Him who raised up Jesus our Lord from 
among the dead; who was delivered for our offences, and raised 
again for our justification." Rom. 4: 23 — 25. 

15: 7 21. GOD RATIFIES THE PROMISES MADE, WITH A SOLEMN 

COVENANT. (1911 B. C.) 

7 And he said unto him, I am Jehovah that brought thee out of 
Ur of the Chaldees, to give thee this land to inherit it. 

8 And he said, O Lord Jehovah, whereby shall I know that I shall 
inherit it? 

9 And he said unto him, Take me a heifer three years old, and a 
she-goat three years old, and a ram three years old, and a turtle-dove, 
and a young pigeon. 

10 And he took him all these, and divided them in the midst, and 
laid each half over against the other: but the birds divided he not. 

11 And the birds of prey came down upon the carcasses, and 
Abram drove ihem away. 



CHAPTER 15: 7—21 177 

12 And when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon 
Abram ; and, lo, a horror of great darkness fell upon him. 

13 And he said unto Abram, Know of a surety that thy seed shall 
be sojourners in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them ; and 
they shall afflict them four hundred years ; 

14 and also that nation, whom they shall serve, will I judge : and 
afterward shall they come out with great substance. 

15 But thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace ; thou shalt be buried 
in a good old age. 

16 And in the fourth generation they shall come hither again: for 
the iniquity of the Amorite is not yet full. 

17 And it came to pass, that, when the sun went down, and it 
was dark, behold a smoking furnace, and a flaming torch that passed 
between these pieces. 

18 In that day Jehovah made a covenant with Abram, saying, 
Unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto 
the great river, the river Euphrates : 

19 the Kenite, and the Kenizzite, and the Kadmonite, 

20 and the Hittite, and the Perizzite, and the Rephaim, 

21 and the Amorite, and the Canaanite, and the Girgashite, and 
the Jebusite. 

The appearance of doubt or vacillation which Abram manifests 
in vr. 8, did not turn upon the promise that he should have a 
son of his own, nor of the redemption which by his means was 
to come to all the families of the earth. Paul considers the act 
of faith related in vr. 6, as a single act, continuing in full exercise 
from that point until Abraham was a hundred years of age, a 
period of seventeen or eighteen years, and down to the birth of 
Isaac. Rom. 4: 19; Gen. 17: 1 — 17. The vacillation or doubt had 
to do with the possession of that land; — in what form, or by what 
means, he, already an old man of 85 years, who was still with- 
out a son, was to enter into possession of it, occupied then by 
other peoples and different races. He asked more information 
on a subject which interested him so deeply; so that his question 
does not contradict the argument of Paul in Rom. 4: 19 — 22, nor 
his declaration that Abraham did not waver through unbelief 
with regard to the promise of God. If we find difficulty in tell- 
ing in what sense and how far Abraham himself was, or is, to 
possess that land, how much more difficult for him? The words 
"possess" and "inherit" are the same thing in Hebrew and in 
New Testament Greek; and the former in its ordinary sense, even 
where translated "inherit": "to inherit eternal life" is to possess 
it: and that is the appropriate sense here. Abraham could well 
see that the time was remote, and asking for more information 
with regard to the possession of that land, he asked also some 
sign and formal security, not so much for himself, as to give 
assurance to his posterity, which before its fulfilment might 
well lose faith in the promise, on account of its long delay, — 
more than 400 years, as God proceeds to inform him, and many of 



178 GENESIS 

them years of great hardship and grievous bondage; as in fact 
happened in the days of Moses, when the children of Israel 
"hearkened not unto Moses for anguish of spirit and for cruel 
bondage." Ex. 6: 9. 

Jehovah deigned to grant him, in part, the information and the 
formal security which he asked. It seems that it was an ordinary 
custom among ancient nations, when they celebrated covenants 
of peculiar solemnity, to observe the same form; viz., that of 
dividing in twain animals slain for sacrifice, and the contracting 
parties passing between the separated pieces. It is probable that 
Abraham was previously acquainted with this form of covenant- 
ing; but it was Jehovah who made the preliminary arrangements, 
or bade Abram make them; and Abram undoubtedly passed 
many times between the severed pieces, while he kept guard over 
them, until night came on; but this signifies little, as it was not 
he, but God, who covenanted. But when the sun was about to set, 
a deep sleep fell upon Abram and a horror of great darkness; 
and while he was in that state, Jehovah gave him information 
as to the future of his race, of their going down into Egypt, of the 
cruel oppression they would there suffer, of their coming up 
from thence with great riches, and of the epoch in which this 
should happen — "in the fourth generation" — or after four hun- 
dred years. Gesenius in his Hebrew Lexicon, under the word 
Dor, says: "The Hebrews, as we do, seem commonly to have 
reckoned the duration of a generation at from thirty to forty 
years, comp. Job. 42: 16; but in the times of the patriarchs it was 
reckoned at a hundred years; see Gen. 15: 16, comp. vr. 13 and 
Ex. 12: 40. So among the Romans the word seculum originally 
signified age, or generation of men, and was later transferred to 
denote a century." "Dor" is the word used in vr. 16, and in the 
Mod. Span. Version it is translated "century" ("in the fourth cen- 
tury they shall come hither again") ; the object of a translation 
being to put the mind of the reader in correct and satisfactory 
touch with the mind of the writer, rather than to give him a 
problem of difficult interpretation. In ch. 50: 23 we read that 
"Joseph saw Ephraim's children of the third generation." As 
therefore Joseph was married when 30 years old and died when 
110, (an interval of 80 years), these four generations of his 
descendants cannot have exceeded 20 years each; and this con- 
fusion of "generation" and "generation," though different words 
in the original (the one signifying a century, and the other — in 
this case — 20 years), has led to not a little confusion of thought 
in treating of the length of the sojourn of Israel in Egypt. See 
Note 21. 



* CHAPTER 15: 7—21 179 

Abram awoke from tus sleep, to observe that when the sun was 
set and it was now dark, behold! there was seen a smoking 
furnace and a flaming torch (emblem of the divine presence, 
repeated in the bush that burned with fire and was not con- 
sumed, Ex. 3: 2, and in the pillar of fire and of cloud, Ex. 13: 21), 
which passed between the pieces of the divided animals. Vr. 17. 
So, with this visible sign, God covenanted that day with Abram. 
giving to his seed or descendants that land, from the river or 
torrent of Egypt (not the river Nile), unto the river Euphrates; 
limits which the kingdom in fact reached in the times of David 
and Solomon. This covenant, thus formally celebrated with 
Abram, although it made special allusion to the possession of 
that land, toward which Abram's thought was then directed, em- 
braced undoubtedly the promises formerly given, and afterwards 
repeated, of the human redemption. "The covenant made with 
Abraham" the Bible always treats as one and indivisible, em- 
bracing not only the natural descendants of Abraham, but Christ, 
and all the benefits and the beneficiaries of the New Covenant of 
grace and redemption. Paul cites expressly vrs. 5 and 6 of this 
chapter as setting forth that act of "faith which was counted to 
Abraham for righteousness," and this necessarily enters into the 
covenant then, for the first time, formally celebrated with him. 

We ought not to pass without due attention those remarkable 
words of vr. 16, "for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet 
full." Four hundred additional years of grace God granted to 
that race of sinners (including under the name of Amorites, with 
whom Abram had most to do, the other tribes of Canaan), before 
sweeping them away with the besom of destruction. The same 
thing happens with sinners in general. And the long-suffering 
of God waits while they go on filling up the measure of their 
iniquity; but then, at last, the sword of divine justice falls. This 
thought ought to embitter the cup of their pleasures. 

[Note 21. — On the bondage and oppression of the people in 
Egypt, and on the time of their sojourn there. There has been 
long dispute, and still is, as to whether the time which the 
Israelites passed in Egypt was 215 years, or the double of this, 
430 years; a question which will be again discussed in the com- 
ment on Ex. 1: 7 — 12, and 12: 40, 41; but it interests us here also ; 
In order to explain the "400 years" of the oppression and bond- 
age (vr. 13), and the "fourth century," or "generation," in which 
the children of Abraham were to return to Canaan. Vr. 16. 

To me it seems, after many years study of this point, that the 
dispute is founded not so much on any uncertainty as to what 
the Bible itself says on the subject (for the Bible always favors 



180 GENESIS 

the short term of 215 years, unless Ex. 12: 40 be an exception, 
the translation and sense of which is much disputed, and which 
we shall consider hereafter), as on the purpose of gaining time, 
in the belief that the Biblical chronology does not concede time 
sufficient to put it in harmony with the newly discovered records 
of Egyptian history, and what is at present supposed to be the 
testimony of the monuments of Egypt; — the very same purpose 
that moved the translators of the Greek Version of the LXX 
(Egyptian Jews all of them) to stretch out the genealogies, as 
we have seen; in spite of which, however, they held fast to the 
short term of the Egyptian Sojourn. See Note 12 on Biblical 
Chronology. 

The text says "they shall afflict them four hundred years" — 
that is to say, counting from the time that God spoke to him; 
which puts vr. 13 in agreement with vr. 16, "in the fourth cen- 
tury (—in 400 years) they shall return hither"; because the two 
evidently refer to the same thing. In the Modern Spanish Version 
the word "until" is supplied in italics before the "400 years," 
as being necessary to render the sense plain; because the oppres- 
sion and bondage did not last even the half of the 400 years. We 
must deduct in the first place, the 71 years that Joseph governed 
in Egypt, after the arrival of his father and brethren. Then 
there must be deducted a long period of peace and prosperity 
which the people enjoyed after his death. Moses says that this 
lasted "until there arose a new king (or dynasty) in Egypt which 
knew not Joseph" (Ex. 1: 18) ; but he does not say when this was. 
Stephen however says, that "when the time of the promise drew 
nigh which God had sworn unto Abraham (that is, the 'fourth 
century' or the '400 years' which we are now considering) the 
people grew and multiplied in Egypt, until there arose another 
king (or dynasty) over Egypt who knew not Joseph, . . . at 
which season Moses was born," etc. Acts 7: 17 — 20. Moses was 
80 years old when he brought the people out of Egypt, and the 
oppression and bondage began only a little while before he was 
born,* at the time that a new dynasty came in to reign. If we 
grant twenty years for this, it will follow that the oppression and 
bondage commenced about 100 years before the exodus; so that 
the Modern Spanish Version is authorized in inserting the word 
"until," in italics, before the "400 years," to make it appear that 
these do not indicate the duration of the bondage and oppression, 

•Aaron was born three years before Moses (Ex. 7:7), but it does not 
appear that he ran any risk of his life ; which seems to prove that 
Pharaoh's inhuman edict, consigning to death all the male children 
thereafter born, had not yet been promulgated. 



CHAPTER 15: 7—21 181 

but the date at which they were to end, counting from a given 
point.* So then the long term of 430 years proves to be incorrect 
all around. The 400 years cannot indicate, in general terms, the 
430 years they say the people dwelt in Egypt; for they are ex- 
pressly spoken with reference to the bondage of the people in 
Egypt, and not the time of their residence there; nor can they 
give the duration of that bondage, because it lasted only from 
80 to 100 years; nor can they indicate the epoch of their liberation, 
because there is no given point from which to calculate them. 
Just the contrary happens with the short period of 215 years. 
Jehovah said to Abram that "in the fourth century (or 'genera- 
tion'), they shall return hither; because the iniquity of the 
Amorites is not yet full" (vr. 16); from which it seems evident 
that he did not mean to say that the bondage would last 400 
years, but until 400 years, counting from that date. The words of 
Moses and of Stephen manifest that the new dynasty (which ac- 
cording to the Egyptologists expelled the dynasty of the Shepherd- 
kings, which favored the Israelites and other Asiatic peoples) 
began the oppression. And Stephen says that was the time in 
which Moses was born; so that the concession of 20 years of 
bondage and oppression before the birth of Moses seems to be 
amply sufficient. 

The declaration of Stephen that "Moses was born when the 
time of the promise was drawing nigh which God had sworn to 
Abraham;" the express declaration of Paul that the promulgation 
of the Law on Sinai was 430 years after the covenant which God 
made with Abraham (Gal. 3: 17), — the same covenant which we 
are now studying; the fact that Moses who ought to have known 
the circumstances of his own birth, tells us distinctly that his 
father Amram was a grandson of Levi, the brother of Joseph, 
and that the name of his mother "was Jocabed, a daughter of 
Levi who was born to Levi in Egypt" (Num. 26: 57, 58, 59) ; and 
the fact that all the genealogies of Moses (Ex. 2: 1; 6: 16 — 27; 
Num. 26: 57 — 59; 1 Chron. 6: 1 — 3), and all the genealogies of 
the contemporaries of Moses, agree with the short term, but not 
with the long one, ought to be esteemed, I think, sufficient to set- 
tle the question. 

The common allegation, which is urged on the other side, that 

the 70 persons who came into Egypt (ch. 46: 26, 27), could not in 

215 years increase into the two or three millions of people who 

*The Revised Version of Acts 7 : 6 inserts a comma before the "four 

hundred years," seemingly for the same purpose ; and there is no reason 

why it is not inserted in Gen. 15 : 13 also, except that this was done 
by a different company of Revisers. — Tr. 



182 GENESIS 

went out under Moses, has nothing to stand on; because not only 
Jacob and his sons and their families entered, but their servants 
and dependents also — the whole tribe or clan — who could not have 
been less than 2,000 persons and may have been 3,000 or 4,000; 
who might well increase to that number under the protecting 
hand of God; and we are informed at every step that the increase 
of the people in Egypt was prodigious, in spite of the oppression 
which they suffered. But if, on the contrary, the 430 years 
(eleven generations) be granted, which the advocates of the long 
term claim, the movement of population would be so extremely 
Blow as to reduce to a meaningless exaggeration the repeated 
declarations of their enormous increase in Egypt. See also the 
comment on Ex. 1: 7 — 9. The disputed translation of Ex. 12: 40, 
we shall consider in its place.] 

[Translator's Note 2. — On Exodus 12: 40. The Modern Spanish 
Version of this passage reads: "And the sojourning life of the chil- 
dren of Israel, who had dwelt in Egypt, was 430 years" — "the 
children of Israel" being understood, as the Version of the LXX 
understands it, and the English Version understands it, as mean- 
ing the people of God, and including Abraham and Isaac, as 
well as Jacob himself, who went down with his children and their 
families into Egypt (seventy souls, as we are told in ch. 46: 27), 
together with thousands of servants and dependents — not less 
than 2000, and probably more (see comments on ch. 46: 1 — 7) — 
circumcised Hebrews all of them, and forming an integral part 
of the coming Hebrew nation (ch. 17: 12, 13, 27) ; these as well as 
their offspring down to the times of Moses. To the same pur- 
pose is the A. V. of the passage: "Now the sojourning of the 
children of Israel, who dwelt in Egypt, was 430 years." The Re- 
visers displaced this translation with the following: "Now the 
sojourning of the children of Israel, which they sojourned in 
Egypt, was 430 years." This is manifestly an incorrect rendering 
of the Hebrew; since "moshav" rendered sojourning, is never once 
so rendered in the 43 times it is found in the Hebrew Bible, except 
in this case; and the verb "yashav," translated sojourned, out of 
1050 times it occurs in the Hebrew Bible is never so rendered 
except in this one case, where the A. V. renders it correctly 
"dwelt" ; so that the alleged Hebrew idiom, "the sojourning which 
they sojourned" cannot stand — it was made for the occasion. The 
American Standard Revised Version (1901) seems to be so well 
satisfied of this, that it gives up the idea of translating it alto- 
gether, and paraphrases it thus: "Now the time that the children 
of Israel dwelt in Egypt was 430 years;" — which the Hebrew text 
is careful not to say. The Modern Spanish Version, "the sojourn* 



CHAPTER 16: 1—6 183 

ing life of the children of Israel, who had dwelt in Egypt, was 
430 years," is as good as any of them simply as a translation of 
the Hebrew words; and on reading my defense of it, the venerable 
Dr. William Henry Green, of Princeton Seminary, New Jersey, 
wrote me a few months before his lamented death, that as a 
matter of translation, it could stand; though he did not think 
it expressed the sense of the writer. However that may be, it 
has the merit of setting the difficult passage in harmony with 
Moses himself — or with Jehovah's words by his mouth — in ch. 
15: 13, 16; with Paul in Gal. 3:17; with Stephen in Acts 7: 17, 20; 
with the genealogies of Moses and his contemporaries, repeatedly 
given in the Bible, which all favor the short term; and with 
Moses' own account of his personal history, which he gives several 
times over; see Ex. 2: 1, 2; 6: 16 — 29 and Num. 26: 59; a matter 
about which he might be presumed to know more than all the 
moderns put together. In a word, that rendering, "which may 
stand as a matter of translation," puts the passage in harmony 
with all parts of the Bible itself, and with the universal belief 
of Bible expositors in ancient and modern times, till a very 
recent date. It is only out of harmony with the supposed find- 
ings of the Egyptian monuments; in which all do not agree. In 
an article from the pen of Prof. A. H. Sayce, published a few 
years ago in The Independent, of New York City, he said that the 
readings of the Egyptian monuments were not any more decisively 
in favor of the long term than of the short.] 

CHAPTER XVI. 

VES. 1 6. HUMAN EXPEDIENTS TO GIVE EFFECT TO THE DTVINE 

PROMISES. HAGAR. (1910 B. C.) 

1 Now Sarai, Abram's wife, bare him no children : and she had a 
handmaid, an Egyptian, whose name was Hagar. 

2 And Sarai said unto Abram, Behold now, Jehovah hath re- 
strained me from bearing ; go in, I pray thee, unto my handmaid ; it 
may be that I shall obtain children by her.* And Abram hearkened 
to the voice of Sarai. 

3 And Sarai, Abram's wife, took Hagar the Egyptian, her hand- 
maid, after Abram had dwelt ten years in the land of Canaan, and 
gave her to Abram her husband to be his wife. 

4 And he went in unto Hagar, and she conceived : and when she 
saw that she had conceived, her mistress was despised in her eyes. 

5 And Sarai said unto Abram, My wrong be upon thee : I gave 
my handmaid into thy bosom ; and when she saw that she had con- 
ceived, I was despised in her eyes : Jehovah judge between me and 
thee. 

6 But Abram said unto Sarai, Behold, thy maid is in thy hand ; 
do to her that which is good in thine eyes. And Sarai dealt hardly 
with her, and she fled from her face. 

*Heb. be builded by her. 



184 GENESIS 

After so explicit a promise that God would give him a son, 
Abram and Sarai naturally expected its prompt fulfilment. But 
as the faith of Abram was his distinctive trait and the most 
glorious and precious attribute of his character, and as it was 
for this (and not on account of his good works) that he was 
"justified" (= regarded and treated as righteous) before God, 
Jehovah was careful to refine and strengthen it by means of 
many trials. The promised son did not come. Ten years had 
already passed since God brought him to the land of Canaan to 
inherit, or possess, it (ch. 15: 7), and as we know, he was yet to 
wait fifteen more, before the promise was fulfilled that he should 
have a son to inherit it, in whose seed all the nations of the 
earth should be blessed. But Sarai knew nothing of this, and 
Abram did not distantly suspect it. Sarai only knew that ten 
years had passed without any of God's many promises bringing 
her the happiness of being a mother; and believing it useless to 
wait any longer, or perhaps believing that she might help for- 
ward the cause, she adopted the most extraordinary expedient 
that ever found a place in the heart of a well married woman, 
and gave to her husband her Egyptian slave, Hagar, for a sec- 
ondary wife; according to the use of the times. Ch. 22: 24. Until 
then, Abram had been a strict monogamist; but when Sarai 
formally made him such a proposal, he accepted it, not for lack 
of faith in God, but on account of the representations of his wife, 
that God perhaps waited for them to take the necessary steps 
for the fulfilment of what he had promised; and in fine, God had 
promised him a son, but not necessarily by Sarai, and the son of 
Hagar would certainly be Abram's own son. These human ex- 
pedients to give effect to the divine promises continue still to be 
one of the most dangerous reefs on which Christian life is 
wrecked. 

The reasons alleged by Sarai would appear to be well taken, 
in the view of a merely human prudence; but the result did not 
turn out according to her wishes; for the servant, when she found 
herself enciente, despised her mistress, and was guilty of the 
imprudence of manifesting it. Solomon says "that a handmaid, 
when she is heir to her mistress, is one of the three or four 
things for which the earth is troubled, and which it cannot bear." 
(Prov. 30: 21 — 23) ; and so Sarai found it, to the bitterness of her 
soul; although we cannot help suspecting that the mistress had 
as much part in this as the handmaid. Sarai, with the petulance 
that is natural to the woman who has always had her own way. 
threw the blame of her misfortune on her husband, and he, 
authorizing her to do as she would with her rival, the servant, 



CHAPTER 16: 7—16 185 

ill-treated her — the words mean all that — to such a degree that 
she fled from the encampment, and went away into the desert. 

16: 7 — 16. HAGAR AND ISHMAEL. (1910 B. C.) 

7 And the angel of Jehovah found her by a fountain of water in 
the wilderness, by tl:e fountain in the way to Shur. 

8 And he said, Hagar, Sarai's handmaid, whence earnest thou? and 
whither goest thou? And she said, I am fleeing from the face of my 
mistress Sarai. 

9 And the angel of Jehovah said unto her, Return to thy mistress, 
and submit thyself under her hands. 

10 And the angel of Jehovah said unto her, I will greatly multiply 
thy seed, that it shall not be numbered for multitude. 

11 And the angel of Jehovah said unto her, Behold, thou art with 
child, and shalt bear a son ; and thou shalt call his name Ishmael, 
because Jehovah hath heard thy affliction. 

12 And he shall be as a wild ass among men ; his hand shall be 
against every man, and every man's hand against him ; and he shall 
dwell over against all his brethren. 

13 And she called the name of Jehovah that spake unto her, 
Thou art a God that seeth :* for she said, Have I even here looked 
after him that seeth me? 

14 Wherefore the well was called Beer-lahai-roi ;f behold, it is 
between Kadesh and Bered. 

15 And Hagar bare Abram a son : and Abram called the name of 
his son, whom Hagar bare, Ishmael. 

16 And Abram was fourscore and six years old, when Hagar bare 
Ishmael to Abram. 

*Or, Thou God seest me. 

fllxat is. The well of the living one who seeth me. 

Hagar naturally took the road to her own country, and, being 
a resolute and high spirited woman, and proud of the distinction 
of giving a son to her master, she took her solitary way for 
Shur; — the name of the district to the N. E. of Egypt, including' 
the eastern part of what we call the Isthmus of Suez. While 
she was on her way, the Angel of Jehovah found her at a foun- 
tain of water near to the S. W. limits of the land of Canaan. He 
detained her in her purpose of going to her own country, and 
bade her return to her mistress and submit herself to her author- 
ity. The Angel likewise said to her: "I will greatly multiply 
thy seed." Very surprising must these words have sounded in 
the ears of Hagar; and in ours they ought to make little less 
impression. Who, then, was the "Angel" that thus spoke, but 
the "Angel of the Covenant," who appeared to Moses in the burn- 
ing bush, and with the name and the authority of Jehovah, com- 
missioned him to bring forth His people out of Egypt, and gave 
directions as to the steps he should take for this purpose? Ex. 
3: 2, 4 — 6. The word "angel" signifies "messenger," or "sent 
one"; and if this Angel was a divine person, who but God the 
Father could be he that sent him? Here then we have another 



186 GENESIS 

proof of the doctrine of a plurality of persons in the GodheacL 
found in the Old Testament, and near to the beginning of it. The 
God Jehovah sent his Angel, who was also God Jehovah, as is said 
in vrs. 10 and 13, and as, with greater emphasis, is repeated in Ex. 
3: 2 — 6; and he also, when he was made flesh, said to his afflicted 
disciples: "I tell you the truth; it is expedient for you that I 
go away; for if I go not away, the Comforter ('who is the Holy 
Ghost') will not come unto you; hut if I go, I will send him unto 
you." John 16: 7. So then the Son is the "Angel," or "Sent One" 
of the Father; and the Holy Spirit is the "Angel," or "Sent One," 
of the Son. Comp. Acts 2: 32 and John 14: 26. More than sixty 
times in the New Testament, in various forms, Jesus is called, 
or calls himself, the sent one. See John 5: 38; 6: 29; 12: 49, 

The Angel said likewise to her that she was to become the 
mother of a son, whom she should call Ishmael (— God will hear), 
in commemoration of the fact that God had "heard her (cries in, 
her) affliction"; — a seemingly clear proof that in her lonely 
wandering in the desert, she had called for help to the God of her 
master Abram. A wild and untamable man, like the wild ass 
of the desert, was her son Ishmael to be; free and indomitable as 
the "onager" described in Job 39: 5 — 8, "who heareth not the cry 
of the driver"; /'his hand against every man and every man's 
hand against him" — a vivid picture of the Bedouin Arabs, his 
descendants, until this day: "and in the presence of all his 
brethren shall he dwell." He would not, therefore, be the only 
son of Abram, but should have brethren; yet in the presence of all 
of them he should maintain himself free and independent, un- 
conquered and unconquerable as the wild ass. 

A very great prophecy is this. While the Jews of the world, 
dispersed throughout the globe, do not exceed eight or ten 
millions, at most, the descendants of Ishmael, and those allied 
with and joined to him in the faith of the false prophet of 
Arabia, Mohammed — an Ishmaelite of the Ishmaelites — form a 
vast host, of 150,000,000 to 200,000,000 people. "I will greatly 
multiply thy seed, so that it cannot be counted for multitude." 

If Hagar, who knew the secrets of the family, entertained the 
hope that she was to be the mother of the promised "Seed," the 
revelation which the Angel made was enough to undeceive her; 
but being a woman of worldly and ambitious disposition, and of 
a proud spirit, the promise of the Angel would at any rate leave 
her completely satisfied; and she commemorated a divine inter- 
position, so merciful and so opportune, by calling the Angel- 
Jehovah, who spake with her: "Thou-God-seest-me." (A. V.), and 
probably she called the well also "the Well of the Living-One-who- 



CHAPTER 16: 7—16 187 

seeth-me (Heb. Beer-lahai-roi) ; a name which was long preserved 
in the family of Abraham. Ch. 24: 62; 25: 11. Vr. 14 locates this 
well "between Kadesh and Bered." But Bered does not appear 
again in the Bible as the name of a place, and Kadesh also is of 
uncertain location. So that the surest note of the locality of this 
well will be found in the fact that Hagar set out from Hebron and 
took the route to Shur, which was precisely at the entrance of 
Egypt; whither doubtless the Egyptian directed her steps. In 
this line therefore, should the well be sought, and not in the road 
to Mount Sinai, where some would locate it. It will be well for us, 
if in imitation of this unhappy woman, we also erect our "Eb- 
enezer" (1 Sam. 7: 12) in the places of our mortal pilgrimage 
where our God has lent us his special aid. 

Others give a different sense to vr. 15, and translate: "Also do 
I here see (=live), after the vision (of God) ;" and they support 
this sense with ch. 32: 30; Jud. 6: 22; 13: 22: — an exclamation 
of surprise and pleasure that she had seen God and yet remained 
alive; according to an ancient belief that a vision of God de- 
prived of life any who should have it. The passage is extremely 
difficult, and many and various are the meanings which are 
given to it in the ancient Versions. That which I have given, 
seems to be the most satisfactory, and is likewise the most 
common. 

[Note 22. — On the "Angel of Jehovah" It is an interesting 
and very important fact that he who in Gen. 16: 7 — 10; 21: 17, 18; 
31: 11—13; Ex. 23: 20, 21; Judg. 2:1, 2; 13: 3, 18, 22, and in 
other cases besides, presents himself to us as "the Angel of 
Jehovah," is represented in the context as Jehovah himself, 
speaking in his name and with his authority, and clothed with 
his prerogatives. In chapter 18, and in Josh. 5: 13 — 15; 6: 5, we 
shall have to consider the case of one in human form, who with- 
out being called "Angel," the history clothes with the dis- 
tinctive traits of Jehovah and gives him the name of Jehovah. 
Such a one is indeed "the Angel of Jehovah" (or, if you please 
"the Angel Jehovah"), who, 1900 years after this interview, 
"became flesh" in the womb of the Virgin Mary, and was born to 
be Jehovah-Jesus. 

It is much to be regretted that the Hebrew does not dis- 
tinguish, and so far as I can learn, cannot distinguish, between 
"the Angel of Jehovah" — he who is such par excellence, and an 
angel of Jehovah — aDy one of the many whom he sends as his 
messengers, and to execute his mandates; and it remains with 
the translator to make the due distinction between the two, 
according as the sense demands; as is done in the English 



188 GENESIS 

Version. The Revised English Version, affecting as it does an ex- 
treme precision, always translates "the angel of Jehovah," (or "of 
the Lord") whoever the said angel may be; which is the same 
as to use the phrase always in an indefinite sense; and in fact 
the Revised English Version, so far as I can see, never uses 
the phrase "an angel of Jehovah" in the Old Testament. 

It is also an interesting circumstance that after the incarna- 
tion of the "Angel of Jehovah," in the form of Jesus-Jehovah, 
the original Greek of the New Testament never presents to us 
any messenger from heaven as "the angel of the Lord," but al- 
ways indefinitely as "an angel of the Lord," (as is seen in 
the Revised English Version,) unless it be in allusion to an angel 
already mentioned. And this circumstance, unobserved by the 
translators of the Bible in general, furnishes us an incidental 
proof, first, of the inspiration of the Holy Scriptures, and second, 
that the Son of Mary is the Angel Jehovah of the Old Testa- 
ment; according as the prophet Isaiah, proclaimed the fact, 700 
years before his wonderful birth: 

"For unto us a Child is born, 

unto us a Son is given; 

and the government shall be upon his shoulder: 

and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, 

Mighty God, Everlasting Father,* Prince of Peace. 

Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be 

no end, 
upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, 
to establish it, and to uphold it with justice and with 

righteousness 
from henceforth and forever. 
The zeal of Jehovah of Hosts will perform this." Isa. 9: 6, 7.] 

[In the above quotation from Isaiah, the translation "Ever- 
lasting Father," as one of the names of Christ, is unfortunate 
and misleading, and leaves the ordinary reader in sad perplexity 
as to how the Son of Mary should bear a distinctive title of "God 
the Father Almighty." The Hebrew form, as given in the mar- 
gin of our Bibles, does not h^elp the matter much. "Father of 
eternal duration," would be more comprehensible. The Latin 
Vulgate renders it "Father of the Future Age"= the World to 
Come — the "world without end." The Vulgate translations of 
Scio and Amat render it "Father of the Age to Come." The 
Modern Spanish Version, following the Hebrew more closely, 
renders it "Father of the Eternal Age" ("age" in italics). This is 
*Heh. Father of Eternity. 



CHAPTER 17: 1—8 189 

doubtless the meaning of the name. Adam was and is the Father 
of this present Age of sin and death; Jesus Christ, the Second 
Adam, is "the Father of the Coming Age" of righteousness and 
life eternal. "He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall 
be satisfied." Isa. 53: 11. He is yet to say, when the number is 
complete: "Behold me and the children which God hath given 
me!" Heb. 2: 13. Two great men tower immeasurably above 
all others in the history of men: the man who damned the world, 
and the man who saves the world — sent by God for this very pur- 
pose (1 John 4: 14) and not merely to save individuals, whether 
regarded as many or few. Paul draws the parallel between them 
in Rom. 5: 12-21. Each is father of his own, as there indicated. 
In this sense the "child" born in Bethlehem is the "Eternal 
Father" of the English Versions; or better said, the "Father of 
the age (or world) to come" — the eternal age, "the world with- 
out end." Of all "them that are accounted worthy to obtain that 
world and the resurrection from among the dead" (Luke 20: 35), 
and also of all the infant dead, "of whom is the kingdom of 
heaven," he is the fathee; "Father of the world (or age) to 
come." Compare Greek text of Heb. 2: 5. — Tr.] 

CHAPTER XVII. 

VKS. 1 — 8. ONCE MORE THE COVENANT IS ESTABLISHED WITH ABEAM, 
UNFOLDING MORE AND MOEE THE PEOMISE. HIS NAME IS CHANGED 
TO ABEAHAM. (1897 B. C ) 

1 And when Abram was ninety years old and nine, Jehovah ap- 
peared to Abram, and said unto him, I am God Almighty; walk be- 
fore me, and be thou perfect. 

2 And I will make my covenant between me and thee, and will 
multiply thee exceedingly. 

3 And Abram fell on his face: and God talked with him, saying, 

4 As for me, behold, my covenant is with thee, and thou shalt be 
the father of a multitude of nations. 

5 Neither shall thy name any more be called Abram, but thy name 
shall be Abraham; for the father of a multitude of nations have I 
made thee. 

6 And I will make thee exceeding fruitful, and I will make na- 
tions of thee, and kings shall come out of thee. 

7 And I will establish my covenant between me and thee and thy 
seed after thee throughout their generations for an everlasting cove- 
nant, to be a God unto thee and to thy seed after thee. 

8 And I will give unto thee, and to thy seed after thee, the land 
of thy sojournings, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting posses- 
sion ; and I will be their God. 

Thirteen years had passed since the birth of Ishmael, who 
was born eleven years after Abram's entrance into the land of 
Canaan, — a total of twenty-four years. Abram naturally re- 
garded Ishmael as the promised heir; and as the boy had talent 



190 GENESIS 

and resolution, which came to him from both his parents, Abram 
was more and more delighted with his son. Sarai could in- 
terpose no difficulty whatever, in spite of her jealousy of her 
handmaid; because the proposal had been her own, that Abraham, 
by this expedient, should obtain the fulfilment of the divine 
promise; and Sarai had already obtained the accomplishment 
of her wishes — a son and heir by Hagar her slave. Hagar, in 
spite of the undeceiving which the Angel of Jehovah had given 
her (ch. 16: 12), could not fail to participate in the illusion 
which was common to both her master and mistress. So thirteen 
years of roseate illusions had passed for her and her son Ish- 
mael: — not Eliezer of Damascus, then, but Ishmael was to be 
the heir of Abraham! Fourteen or fifteen years had passed since 
the preceding revelation (ch. 15: 1), when in the fourteenth 
year of Ishmael, Jehovah deigned to favor his servant and 
friend with still another revelation; which came to overturn all 
his calculations and change all his plans. Let the children 
of Abraham learn, in their father, that the God of the covenanted 
promises fulfils his designs and not ours, and overturns our 
projects in the most strange and unlooked-for manner, after 
leaving us to enjoy them in anticipation, for a long season, as 
already certain; and all this to try our faith, as silver is tried, 
and to produce in us an unlimited confidence in the omnipotent 
power, the watchful providence, the infinite wisdom and the inex- 
haustible love of God. 

Another revelation, therefore, God now granted to his serv- 
ant Abraham; but in a different form from the vision he last 
had. On this occasion we are told that "Jehovah appeared 
to Abraham"; Heo. "Jehovah was seen to Abraham." The in- 
ference is irresistible that this was with a visible manifestation 
of his glory (perhaps like the first he ever had, p. 145), and 
not in the form of a man as in ch. 18: 1, 2; because Abraham, 
when he heard the first words which he spoke to him, fell upon 
his face, and thus he remained while God conversed with 
him; the case reminding us of Moses in the presence of the 
Angel of the Burning Bush, where Jehovah commanded him 
to "take off his shoes from off his feet, because the place 
where he stood was holy ground; and Moses hid his face, for 
he was afraid to look upon God." Ex. 3: 2 — 6. We ought not 
to pass unnoticed indications of this sort, in studying the dif- 
ferent manners in which the true God began to reveal himself 
in a world which had completely forgotten him. "I am God Al- 
mighty; walk before me and be thou perfect!" was the an- 
nouncement with which Jehovah made himself known; and 



CHAPTER 17: 1—8 191 

almost in the same form that he made himself known to 
Moses. On hearing the voice, Abram fell upon his face. "Walk 
before me and be thou perfect," reminds us of Enoch who 
"walked with God" (ch. 5: 24), and of Job, who "was perfect and 
upright, a man that feared God and turned away from evil." 
Job 1: 1. That covenant which was solemnly ratified in ch. 15: 18 
is the thing which in this interview occupies the prominent 
place. "We have traced the promise of redemption, in its constant 
unfolding, down to the times of Noah, and now of Abraham. 
This promise 450 years after the flood was expressly deposited 
in the hands of Abraham and his seed, and after several repeti- 
tions was confirmed by a formal and solemn covenant; with 
emphatic mention of the land of promise; including neverthe- 
less, the promise of the redemption "of the world," of which 
Abraham and his seed were to become "the heirs" (Rom. 4: 13); 
and with regard to which promise we are for the first time told 
that "Abraham believed in Jehovah, and he counted it to him for 
righteousness." Ch. 15: 6. 

Here Jehovah establishes anew the covenant, and at the same 
time amplifies and unfolds the promise, which the covenant 
carried in its bosom, not as a covenant of works and a temporal 
covenant, but on the contrary, as God says expressly: "I will 
establish my covenant between me and thee and thy seed after 
thee, throughout their generations, for an everlasting covenant, 
to be a God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee" Vr. 7. He 
changed his name from "Abram" (= exalted father), into "Abra- 
ham" (:= exalted father of a multitude); promising him, not 
merely that his seed should be as the stars of heaven, and as the 
dust of the earth, but that he should be the father of a multitude 
of nations; and this was signified and commemorated in the new 
name which he gave him together with the promise. The 
change of name, or the receiving of a new name, signifies in 
Holy Scripture, some marked change in the character, condition, 
office, or destiny of the person concerned; as will be seen in the 
case of Abraham and Sarah, vrs. 5, 15; of Jacob, ch. 32: 28; of 
Gideon, Jud. 6: 32; of Simon Peter, John 1: 42; Matt. 16: 18; and 
of Paul, Acts 13: 9. Comp. Isa. 62: 2, 4, 12; Jer. 33: 16; Rev. 
2: 17; 3: 12. 

Thus God gave to Abraham, to him and to his seed after 
him, "the land of his sojournings, to wit, all the land of Canaan, 
for an everlasting possession"; but a possession for one nation 
only. Yet Abraham, in addition to this, was to be the "father of 
a multitude of nations"; who undoubtedly are "all the families 
and nations of the earth, that were to be blessed in him," Ch, 



192 GENESIS 

12: 3; 18: 18. Ishmael was already born, and was then thirteen 
years of age; so we see, in a moment, that the covenant was not 
made with reference to him. And Ishmael being excluded, for the 
same cause and with equal reason must be excluded the other 
sons whom Abraham had by that other concubine, Keturah, 
before Isaac was born. See comments on ch. 25: 1, 2. And 
if these, then with equal reason must be excluded his grand- 
son, the worldly Esau, who sold his birthright for a mess of 
pottage. But this reduces our account again to the single Jewish 
nation, with its narrow and limited land of Canaan, or Pales- 
tine; which in its greatest dimensions was some 150 miles 
long and seventy-five or eighty miles broad, on both sides of the 
river Jordan; which in fact that nation had in possession for 1400 
years; although for eighteen centuries the Jews have been dis- 
possessed of it. 

But the same reason that there was for eliminating Ishmael 
and the sons of Keturah, together with the worldly Esau, 
operates with equal force to exclude the worldly, wicked and 
unbelieving of Israel also; as John the Baptist preached: "And 
think not to say within ourselves: We have Abraham for 
our father; for I say unto you that of these stones God is 
able to raise up children unto Abraham." Matt. 3: 9. Jesus 
also said to them: "If ye were Abraham's children, ye would 
do the works of Abraham"; and again: "If God were your 
father, ye would love me; because I proceeded and came forth 
from God; for I came not of myself, but he sent me. * * * 
Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father 
it is of your will to do." John 8: 39, 42, 44. And this brings 
us to the same conclusion as Paul, where he says (Rom. 9: 6 — 8) : 
"All are not Israel, that are of Israel; neither, because they are 
Abraham's seed are they all children; but: In Isaac shall 
thy seed be called. That is, it is not the children of the flesh that 
are the children of God; but the children of the promise are 
reckoned for seed." It is clear from this that we have to 
look beyond the surface of things and their mere exteriority, 
in order to penetrate the true meaning and wonderful reach 
of this great promise. For if the wicked, worldly and unbe- 
lieving Jews, and such as were mere formalists (like the Scribes 
and Pharisees), not being children of God in spirit and truth, 
were not the "children of Abraham, and heirs according to the 
promise," still less can be accounted such those so-called "Chris- 
tians" who are in identically the same case, and who are not 
the children of Abraham either according to the flesh, or ac- 
cording to the spirit. It is clear, therefore, that "the multitude 



CHAPTER 17: 1—8 193 

of nations" of whom Abraham was to be "the father" are not 
the nations of "this peesent eyil world, from which Christ 
gave himself to deliver us, according to the will of our God 
and Father" (Gal. 1: 5); but rather the "nations of those who 
keep the truth" (Isa. 26: 2) — who "seek the kingdom of God 
and his righteousness" — the nations of the sanctified, resurrected 
and saved. Rev. 21: 24 — 26; 22: 2. There is a growing tendency 
in our day to confound Christianity with Christian Civilization, 
(as in the days of Constantine *), and "the hope of our calling" 
with the "regeneration of society." No mistake could be greater. 

But it is certainly a most interesting fact that no nation, nor 
people, nor tribe of the natural descendants of Abraham is 
idolatrous; all, without any exception, are monotheists, and pro- 
fess after their manner the exclusive worship of the God of 
Abraham; — more truly monotheists, from every point of view, 
than the Roman Catholic nations, which, while professing mono- 
theism, have resuscitated and baptized with the name of "Chris- 
tianity" the ancient idolatry of the Greeks and Romans, in the 
worship of their canonized saints, who are in effect, though not 
in name, "gods" and "goddesses," and the favorite objects of 
the worship of all classes of the people. But which, and how 
many, are the nations that derive their lineal descent from 
the loins of Abraham, or their religious faith from the son 
of Hagar? Jews, Arabians, nomadic Bedouins, Turks, Turcomans, 
Egyptians, Afghans, Moroccans, Algerians, and who else? "The 
father of a multitude of nations I have made thee," says the 
promise. It is evident that this does not mean the English 
nation, nor the German, nor the Dutch, nor the Swedish, nor 
the American, of those called Protestant; and still less those 
who are called Roman Catholic, where reign the "canonized 
saints," and Moses and the Prophets and the Apostles, except in 
name, are almost unknown. 

Well then, if the nations already Christianized cannot figure 
in the list of "children of Abraham and heirs according to 
the promise," that "multitude of nations" cannot have refer- 
ence to the future Christianization of all the other nations: this 
is undeniable. But Paul, by divine inspiration, explains and 
comments at length on this and the associated promises, in Rom. 
4: 9 — 25, where he speaks as follows: "For not through the 
Law was the promise to Abraham or to his seed, that he should 
be heib of the world (Gr. kosmos), but through the righteous-, 
ness of faith. . . . For this cause it is of faith, that it may 

*See Eusebius Pamphilius "Panegyric on tJie Splendor of Our Affairs." 
Eccl. Hist. Book X. Ch. 4.— Tr. 



194 GENESIS 

be according to grace, to the end that the promise {the promise 
that he should be the heir of the world — no other is mentioned] 
may be sure unto all the seed; not to that only which is of the 
law, but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham (= the 
Gospel), who is the father of us all (as it is written: A father 
of many nations have I made thee), before him whom he be- 
lieved, even God, who giveth life to the dead, and calleth the 
things that are not as though they were. Who in hope be- 
lieved against hope, to the end that he might become the father 
of many nations, according to that which had been spoken: So 
(like the stars), shall thy seed be." Rom. 4: 13 — 18. WheD 
"the kingdom of God is indeed come, and his will is done on 
earth as it is in heaven"* (Matt. 6: 10); when are inaugurated 
the "new heavens and the new earth, wherein dwelleth right- 
eousness" (2 Pet. 3: 13); when "the Lamb of God has in fact 
taken away the sin of the world" and there is none left (John 
1:29); when the Christ of God, his promised Messiah and 
World-Deliverer, has indeed "put away sin by the sacrifice of 
himself" (Heb. 9: 23); when he shall have "finished the trans- 
gression, arid made an end of sins, and brought in everlasting 
righteousness" (Dan. 9: 24); when he has "swallowed up death 
forever, and wiped away tears from all faces, and taken away 

*The Westminster Shorter Catechism (Q. 102) says that under the 
second petition of the Lord's Prayer, we pray (last of all) "that the 
kingdom of glory may oe hastened" — a matter about which few Christians 
in our day concern themselves, "the conversion of the world" having come 
to take its place, as the great Hope of the future. The Larger Catechism 
(Q. 191) is more explicit, and says "we pray that Christ would hasten 
the time of his second coming and our reigning with Him forever" — 
about which we are not thinking much, although Paul wrote to the 
worldly and boasting Corinthians : "I would to God ye did reign, that we 
also might reign with you !" 1 Cor. 4 : 8. 

The reader may not be aware of the fact that our common doctrine 
of "The Millennium," called Post-millenarianism, in our day, to dis- 
tinguish it from Pre-millenarianism, was a thing unheard of in the 
times of the Westminster Assembly (1643-1648). The great John Howe, 
reputed father of the doctrine, was but a beardless youth when that 
Assembly met ; and it was 50 or 60 years later when Daniel Whitby 
modestly presented it as "A NEW HYPOTHESIS." See Appendix to 
Commentary of Patrick, Lowth and Whitby. Jonathan Edwards worked 
It out fully in his History of Redemption, and the Commentator, Thomas 
Scott (Rev. ch. 20), diffused it throughout the Engish-speaking world; 
so that people now speak of it as "the old orthodox doctrine," in dis- 
tinction from the novelties of Pre-millenarianism ! Joseph Milner, a 
contemporary of Thomas Scott, speaks of it as a modification of the old 
Chiliasm of the second and third centuries — putting the Millennium 
oefore rather than after the Second Advent — "revived and confirmed with 
much clearer light in our days." Church History, Vol. 1, page 357. — Tr. 



CHAPTER 17: 1—8 195 

the reproach of his people from off all the earth" (Isa. 25: 8); 
when the wicked shall have gone away into everlasting punish- 
ment, and the righteous been placed in possession of "the king- 
dom, prepared for them (the just) from the foundation of the 
world" (Matt. 25:34 — 46); "when the ransomed of the Lord 
shall return and shall come unto Zion with songs, and ever- 
lasting joy shall be upon their heads, when they shall obtain 
joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away" — for- 
ever (Isa. 35: 10); when "the nations (of the redeemed) shall 
walk in the light of the New Jerusalem," come down from 
heaven to earth, and there is no more curse, nor groaning, nor 
sorrow, nor tears, because the former things have passed away; 
when all the redeemed and saved shall again have "a right to 
the tree of life," and to eat of its fruit (see ch. 3: 22, 24), and 
the leaves of the tree shall oe for the healing of the nations" 
(Rev. chs. 21 and 22) ; — then shall be seen and experienced the 
plentitude of meaning comprised in this great promise given to 
Abraham; and in fact, "all the nations and all the families 
of the earth shall be blessed in him"; and the Seed of the Woman, 
the great Descendant of Abraham, and the greater Son of. 
David, shall be proclaimed "the Saviour of the World." Right 
well has John said, as the summing up of the Gospel: "We have 
seen and do testify that THE FATHER SENT THE SON TO 
BE THE SAVIOUR OP THE WORLD."* 1 John 4: 14. "In thee 
and in thy Seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed." 

There is no Univeksalism in this. Though it is commonly assumed, 
in theological discussions, that "the world," "the whole world," means all 
mankind, the whole race of Adam, it is but a gratuitous assumption. 
"The world," "the whole world," never means that either in Scripture or 
in common parlance ; but rather the earth and its inhabitants. When 
we speak of "the whole world," we do not include Cain, or Abel, or Nim- 
rod, or Abraham, or David, or Nebuchadnezzer, or Julius Caesar; the 
dead are codnted out. And so, when "the world," "the whole world," 
is saved, the lost will be counted out ; as Peter preached (and as a 
hundred Scriptures declare) : "And it shall come to pass that every soul 
that will not hearken unto that Prophet, shall be destroyed from among 
the people." Acts 3 : 23. "The people" will be saved, "but the wicked 
shall be cut off from the earth, and the transgressors shall be rooted out 
of it. Prov. 2 : 22. Intelligent and decisive choice between these two 
only alternatives is what saints and sinners should be alike urged per- 
sistently to make, in the words of Moses, the man of God, to the people 
of his day, in Deut. 30 : 19. And it is just here that the modern pulpit 
eeems to be most grievously blameworthy. — Tr. 



196 GENESIS 

17: 9 — 14. ABRAHAM RECEIVES CIRCUMCISION AS A SIGN AND S2AL 
OF THE COVENANT MADE BY GOD WITH HIM. (1897 B. C.) 

9 And God said unto Abraham, And as for thee, thou shalt keep 
my covenant, thou, and thy seed after thee throughout their gener- 
ations. 

10 This is my covenant, which ye shall keep, between me and you 
and thy seed after thee : every male among you shall be circum- 
cised. 

11 And ye shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskin; and 
it shall be a token of a covenant betwixt me and you. 

12 And he that is eight days old shall be circumcised among you, 
every male throughout your generations, he that is born in the house, 
or bought with money of any foreigner that is not of thy seed. 

13 He that is born in thy house, and he that is bought with thy 
money, must needs be circumcised : and my covenant shall -be in your 
flesh for an everlasting covenant. 

14 And the uncircumcised male who is not circumcised in the 
flesh of his foreskin, that soul shall be cut off from his people ; he 
hath broken my covenant. 

The rite of circumcision was the sign and seal of the cove- 
nant made with Abraham, for him and for his posterity (ch. 
15: 18; 17: 2); and it remained in constant use among the pro- 
fessed people of God, "for a sign (said God) of the covenant 
between me and you" (vr. 11), until the time when they con- 
demned and put to death Jesus, the Christ of God. He then 
"broke his covenant which he had made with all the peoples" 
("with all the tribes," the M. S. V. has it, and Leeser's Jewish 
Version, Zech. 11: 10); and Christ, having risen from the dead, 
instituted another sign and seal for the same purpose, which he 
commanded to be applied to all his people, men and women 
alike: and although, when the unbelieving Jews put their cir- 
cumcision in antagonism with the gospel, and entrenched them- 
selves behind it, in order to discard their own Messiah and 
the salvation promised to Abraham, Paul treated it as a car- 
nal rite, useless and even pernicious (Gal. 5: 1 — 4), he him- 
self teaches us that in its beginning God gave to Abraham "the 
sign of circumcision as a seal of the righteousness of the faith 
which he had, being yet uncircumcised." Rom. 4: 11. Moses 
also and the prophets of the Old Testament as well as the 
apostles of the New, use the word "circumcision" symbolically 
in a spiritual and evangelical sense; and even contemned the 
external rite, when used apart from this, its legitimate and 
proper meaning. Deut. 10: 16; 30: 6; Jer. 4:4; 10: 26; Acts 
7: 51; Rom. 2: 25, 28, 29; Col. 2: 11. 

Putting the sign for the thing signified, circumcision in vr. 
10, represents the covenant of which it was the seal; and in 
vr. 13 Jehovah said that by this means they should carry the 
covenant of their God in their very flesh, and threatened the 






CHAPTER 17: 9—14 197 

uncircumcised male with the penalty of being cut off from the 
pale of his people. This in a strict sense is understood of 
capital punishment, in the case of a proud contempt of this 
institution of God; as is seen in such contempt on the part 
of Zipporah, the wife of Moses, which came near costing him 
his life, at the very time he was about to enter on his mission 
as the prophet and liberator of his people. (Ex. 4: 24 — 26); or- 
in less aggravated cases, it was to be taken in a more spiritual 
sense, as Peter uses it in Acts 3: 23, for excision from the 
Church and people of God. All the people, or most of them, 
in passing their forty years in the wilderness, went without 
circumcision (Josh. 5:5 — 7); and although the reason given 
for this does not present itself to us as conclusive nor satis- 
factory, with regard to infants of eight days old, it is clear 
that it was not done through contempt, and was allowed to pass 
under the eyes of Moses himself. 

The law which thus threatened capital punishment against the 
uncircumcised male, prescribed that the rite was not to oe ad- 
ministered before the child was eight days old. It is clear, 
therefore, that it had nothing to do with the salvation of in- 
fants, of whom multitudes died before they were eight days 
old, and of necessary consequence, uncircumcised. The rite, 
then, had no efficacy whatever to impart grace and salvation 
to those who received it, nor did the lack of it operate to the 
spiritual hurt of those who died without it; as happened 
in the case of the vast uncircumcised multitudes (Josh. 5: 5) 
who died in the desert, as well as the many millions of Israelit- 
ish children who died before they were eight days old; and this 
circumstance comes to shed a flood of light on the anti-chris- 
tian dogma of baptismal regeneration, and the fate of the in- 
fants who die without baptism. The Old Testament, therefore, 
teaches plainly that rites and ceremonies cannot communicate 
grace and salvation. But Roman Catholics and all Ritualists 
maintain that Christ communicated this special virtue to the 
sacraments in general, and to baptism in particular, making them 
the exclusive channels of his grace; and making that grace de- 
pendent on the secret will and intention of the officiating priest!* 

*A singular but unavoidable consequence of all this is that no member 
of that Church, from Pope Leo X down to the humblest peasant, is, or 
can be, infallibly sure that he ivas ever baptized! I baptized a lady 
in the City of Bogota, S. A., who was baptized as an infant in Cucuta, 
when the priest was so drunk that her mother could never be sure that 
he had any intention at all! So distressed was she about this, that 
when the family removed to Bogota, at her urgent instance the child 
was re-baptized by Archbishop Herran. When converted to the belief 
and obedience of the Gospel, I re-baptized her still again, overcoming 
finally her objections with the statement that the Archbishop himself 
did not have the right intention. — Tr. 



198 GENESIS 

On a certain occasion I was treating of this subject with an 
intelligent priest and theological professor in Colombia, S. A., 
and I put the case to him in this shape: "So you say, Doctor, that 
the children who die without baptism are lost?" He reminded 
me that Roman Catholics hold also to a baptism of blood and 
a baptism of fire, which serve the same purpose as that of 
water. I answered that the baptism of blood would not suit their 
case, as they did not die by martyrdom; nor that of ardent desire 
either, as it is a matter of entire indifference with them whether 
you baptize them or not; so that water baptism is the only 
one available in their case; and therefore I repeated my ques- 
tion whether they perish for lack of baptism? — "Yes, Sir!" he 
replied. — "How then," I asked, "did it fare with the little ones 
who died before Christ? All the women, and the male children 
of less than eight days, died uncircumcised; and besides these, 
numberless millions of pagan children died without circumcision, 
and without baptism, of course." — "They were saved," he an- 
swered me; "passing, however, through limbo, whence Jesus 
liberated them, when he 'descended into hell/ between his death 
and his resurrection." — "But in any case they were saved, sooner 
or later; and they were saved, male and female, circumcised and 
uncircumcised, Jews and pagans alike?" — "Yes, Sir, they were 
all saved." — "Well then, Doctor, permit me to ask whether 
Christ came to bless or to curse the little ones? Jesus said (be- 
fore he had instituted Christian baptism, and consequently he 
said it of unbaptized children) : 'Suffer the little children to 
come unto me and forbid them not; for of such is the king- 
dom of God' (Mark 10: 14); and yet you affirm that all infants 
were saved who, before Christ, died without baptism and with- 
out circumcision; but that from that time to this nine-tenths 
or ninety-nine hundredths of them have perished, for the lack of 
somebody to 'put water on them' [the common expression] in 
the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost! 
In this view of the case, Sir, it appears to me that, in so far 
as concerns the little ones, it were better if he had not come till 
now! Tell me, therefore, if he came to bless or to curse the 
little ones?" The good man found himself cornered, and whether 
from conviction, or whether (as is most likely) to put a stop 
to a conversation which was becoming inconvenient, he agreed , 
with me that all unbaptized infants who have died in infancy 
were saved through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, whether 
before Christ or after Christ, and whether of Jewish parentage, 
or Mohammedan, or Christian, or pagan. 

[Visiting a priest on one of my journeys, he deplored very 



CHAPTER 17: 9—14 199 

frankly the vices and wide-spread immoralities of the people, 
notoriously great in that particular city; which naturally led me 
to speak of the indispensable necessity of having the "new heart 
and right spirit" which the Holy Ghost alone can put within us, — 
experiencing that "new birth," or being "born from above," with- 
out which, as Jesus teaches in John 3: 3 — 5, we "cannot see the 
kingdom of God." To this he readily assented; but he spoiled it 
all by saying that this great change is wrought in baptism, which 
washes away all sin and implants all grace. I put this doctrine 
of his Church to a practical test by reminding him that we 
lived in a country of three or four millions of people, every one 
of whom was a baptized Roman Catholic, — a "regenerate person," 
according to their religion; and inquired what they had done 
with so much "grace" which they had all received; to which he 
replied: "They have lost it, Sir!" On this I remarked that it 
seemed to me that a "grace" so easily gained and so universally 
lost was not worth going very far to find! He said that might 
be so, but such was the teaching of his Church. 

On another occasion I was talking with a very handsome and 
intelligent young man, with none too much religion of any kind, 
who, pointing across the lake to some cattle three or four 
miles away, said to me: "That cattle yonder is badly infested 
with the wolf (a grub or larva hatched under the skin from an 
egg deposited by a species of gadfly) ; but I know a little prayer 
about SO LONG (indicating an inch or two on his finger) by 
the use of which I can stand here and extirpate completely that 
plague in the cattle!" I curiously scanned my man to see 
whether he was the fool to believe this, or whether he thought 
it was I. He said in reply that it was a fact, and that there 
were other persons around — especially among the priests — who 
had that happy faculty, which, said he, "I also possess!" It 
was but natural to ask him, why then he did not make his for- 
tune at it! — for on the vast plains of the Casanare, a tributary 
of the Orinoco, and in other cattle-raising sections of Colombia, 
the "wolf" is the one great enemy of the stock-raiser, except for 
which, as they told me, there would be no end to the cattle that 
might be raised. 

On the same journey, a well-to-do countryman was talking to 
me of the same matter, and told me of a certain "padre" who had 
great fame in those parts as an exterminator of the "wolf," whom, 
after many failures, he at last induced to come and cure his 
cattle. So he prepared a sumptuous breakfast for him, and 
after breakfast the "padre" took his station on the lawn, where 
he had a fair view of the stock to be healed; placing then his 



200 GENESIS 

book, candles, etc., on a table, he put on his robes and wa3 
about to begin the performance, when about 11 o'clock A. M. the 
earth began to heave responsively to the earthquake shock which 
that very day (May 18, 1875), and just at that hour, wiped out 
completely the City of San Jose de Cucuta, 200 miles away, a 
city of 12,000 inhabitants, in one moment of time, burying several 
thousand people beneath the heaps of ruins. On this, the 
"padre" naturally desisted, remarking that he would defer the 
exorcism of the cattle for a more propitious occasion. 

Now it has always occurred to me to ask which of the two was 
easier, to cure cattle of the "wolf" by means of a little prayer 
"about SO LONG," or to cure men of original and actual sin by 
sprinkling babies (or adults either) with water in the name of 
the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost? And if he would be a 
"fool" who believes the one, how can he be a wise man who ac- 
cepts and believes the other? Surely Romanism is guilty of a 
heinous "sin against the Holy Ghost," in teaching the nations 
subject to its sway that there is no other "washing of regenera- 
tion and renewing of the Holy Ghost" (Tit. 3:5), except what 
they all have already received in baptism! and that, therefore, 
what the Protestants have to say about the necessity of the "new 
birth," the "being born from on high" is all "bosh," or a non- 
sensical fanaticism! It is to be observed, and the reader ought 
never to lose sight of it, that the diabolical atrocities committed 
against the poor Jews of Russia in these days of horrible 
butchery, robbery and violence (October— December, 1905), are 
all perpetrated by "regenerate persons," — people who have ex- 
perienced the only "regeneration" held and taught by the Greek 
and Roman Churches! The bitter fruits of this "sin against the 
Holy Ghost"* in the work that is peculiarly his own, fill Russia 
and every Roman Catholic country from end to end. — Tr.] 

*In a conversation on this subject which I had with the Rev. Dr. J. 
Addison Alexander, of Princeton Seminary, that portent of learning, a few 
weeks before his lamented and untimely death, he said that in the opinion 
of some very great men the distinctive sin of Romanism (as such) is that 
of "blasphemy against the Holy Ghost" ; an opinion based on the manner 
in which the Roman Catholic Church pretends and claims to appropriate 
to its own uses, to limit, control and apply at its pleasure the free and 
sovereign Spirit of God — free as the winds of heaven, John 3 : 8 — shutting 
up his sanctifying and saving influences in its "seven sacraments," to be 
administered or withheld according to the will and intention of the offi- 
ciating priest, bishop or pope ; and freely attributing to the devil the most 
precious and glorious manifestations of his presence and power among 
Protestant Christians. See Mark 3 : 28, 29. 



CHAPTER 17: 15—22 201 

17: 15 — 22. god pkomises to Abraham a son by sarah, his 
proper and legitimate wife, who should be the heir of the 
covenanted promise. (1897 b. c.) 

15 And God said unto Abraham, As for Sarai thy wife, thou 
shalt not call her name Sarai*, but Sarahf shall be her name. 

16 And I will give thee a son of her ; yea, I will bless her, and 
she shall be a mother of nations ; kings of peoples shall be of her. 

17 Then Abraham fell upon his face, and laughed, and said in 
his heart, Shall a child be born unto him that is a hundred years 
old? and shall Sarah, that is ninety years old, bear? 

18 And Abraham said unto God, Oh that Ishmael might live be- 
fore thee ! 

19 And God said, Nay, but Sarah thy wife shall bear thee a son; 
and thou shalt call his name Isaac$ : and I will establish my covenant 
with him for an everlasting covenant for his seed after him. 

_ 20 And as for Ishmael, I have heard thee : behold, I have blessed 
him, and will make him fruitful, and will multiply him exceedingly ; 
twelve princes shall he beget, and I will make him a great nation. 

2.1 But my covenant will I establish with Isaac, whom Sarah 
shall bear unto thee at this set time in the next year. 

22 And he left off talking with him, and God went up from 
Abraham. 

[*=zMy Princess.] [t= Princess.] [| = Laughter.] 

Up to this point God had said nothing of the happy change 
which he proposed to make in Sarai's condition, but now he 
directs Abraham to change her name from Sarai into Sarah, — 
the first intimation which Abraham had of the part she was 
to take in the fulfilment of the divine promise. As has been 
already said (p. 140), it is probable that among her own 
people, in Ur of the Chaldees, Iscah had been her name, and 
that on marrying Abraham, or on setting out for Canaan, her 
name was changed to Sarai (= "My princess") ; for it is easy 
to believe that this was a pet name which Abraham had given 
to this woman of extraordinary beauty. But now God says 
to him that thenceforward he should call her Sarah (= Princess) ; 
as if to indicate that with this change in her hopes and in her 
state, that distinction which she had borne for a single in- 
dividual should cease, and she should become a "Princess" in 
a larger sense, and for a numerous posterity. Sarah had already 
abandoned all hope of becoming a mother, resigning herself, 
with ill-grace, to the hard necessity of seeing the son of her 
slave put in possession of what for many years she had dreamed 
would be the inheritance of children of her own. But Ishmael 
was now thirteen years old, and Abraham and all the patriarchal 
encampment recognized him as the heir of his father. She was 
close on ninety years, and Abraham was ninety and nine. If 
God was ever going to confer on her so great a happiness, why 
had he not done so in the thirty or thirty-five years which had 
elapsed since he first called her husband, in Ur of the Chal- 



202 GENESIS 

dees? What remedy, then, was there, except to resign her- 
self to her hard lot, and submit to the inevitable? This would 
not be for lack of faith, because God had never promised that 
Sarah should be a mother, and her own expedient for giving 
fulfilment to the divine promise, by bearing children to Abra- 
ham in the person of her slave, Hagar, seemed to shut every 
door of hope for its fulfilment in her own person. But now, 
for the first time, God says to Abraham of Sarai: "I will bless 
her, and moreover I will give thee a son of her; yea, I will bless 
her, and she shall be a mother of nations; kings of peoples shall 
be of her." The laugh of Abraham, and his exclamation of 
surprise, in vr. 17, do not express unbelief on his part. His emo- 
tions would rather be a mixture of wonder and rejoicing, which 
expressed themselves in this unusual manner, in the presence of 
his God; but it was eminently natural. With perfect natural- 
ness, Luke, on relating the first appearance of Jesus in the 
midst of his disciples, after his resurrection, says that after 
he had shown them his hands and his feet, "while they yet 
believed not for joy, and wondered," Jesus took a piece of a 
broiled fish and did eat before them. Luke 24: 41 — 43. Such 
would appear to have been the state of Abraham's mind at 
this juncture. For the space of thirteen years he had believed 
that he had the promise of a son already fulfilled in Ishmael, 
whom he loved, and in whom he centered many hopes; and he 
replied to that divine announcement with the exclamation: "Oh 
that Ishmael might live before thee!" 

It seems that he was perfectly satisfied with the boy, and 
did not look for any other son in fulfilment of the promise. But 
it was not a skilful huntsman, or a valiant warrior, "whose hand 
should be against every man and every man's hand against him" 
(ch. 16: 12), nor still less was it the son of a slave (Gal. 4: 31), 
whom God had chosen for the fulfilment of his purposes; so 
that he answered him that, on the contrary, and in spite of 
whatever natural difficulties might oppose, Sarah should bear him 
a son who in his very name would commemorate the joyful 
laughter of both his parents on hearing the unlooked-for an- 
nouncement. Isaac (= "Laughter" or "He shall laugh") should 
be his name and the covenant so often mentioned and of such 
transcendent importance, should pass into his hands, and be 
established with him, for his descendants, as an everlasting 
covenant. He told him that Ishmael also should be blessed 
and extraordinarily increased, and come to be a great nation, be- 
cause he was his son (ch. 21:13); but the covenant, which 
meant so much to Abraham and to the whole world, should 



CHAPTER 17: 15—22 203 

be for Isaac, whom Sarah would bear to him the coming year. 
In this promise Abraham believed with implicit and unfaltering 
faith; which Paul celebrates in Rom. 4: 13 — 22, concentrating 
in this promise that faith, one and indivisible, which fifteen 
years before had been reckoned to him for righteousness. Gen. 
15: 6. Paul says that Abraham, keeping in view this divine 
promise, "against hope — that is to say against all reasonable 
human hope — believed in hope, that he might become a father of 
many nations {Heb. a multitude of nations) according to that 
which had been spoken: So — like the stars — shall thy seed 
be, and being not weak in faith, he considered not his own 
body, now as good as dead (when he was about an hundred 
years old), neither the deadness of Sarah's womb; but, looking 
to the promise of God, he staggered not through unbelief, but 
was strong in faith, giving glory to God, and fully persuaded 
that what he had promised, he was able also to perform. And 
for this cause it was counted to him for righteousness." Rom. 
4: 18 — 22. How important is it for us to remember that by 
an intelligent and illimitable faith in God and his promises, 
we give more glory to him, than by all the good works which 
he has commanded in his word, when performed with a vac- 
illating faith, or without any! John 6: 29; Luke 17: 10. 

The promise with regard to Ishmael, "I will make of him 
a great nation," has had its fulfilment; but, just as in the case 
of the same promise made to Abraham (ch. 12: 2), it has been 
fulfilled in a moral rather than in a literal sense. Ishmael, as 
an Arab, a nomad of the desert, with his descendants, divided 
among many nomadic tribes, does not make much of a figure 
among the nations of the earth. But when his more distinguished 
son, Mohammed, in the seventh century of the Christian Era, 
raised the banner of the Crescent, and by his sword, and that 
of his successors, destroyed all images, both pagan and "Chris- 
tian" — so called, extirpating material idolatry, and subdued 
a great part of the world, in Europe, Asia and Africa, to his 
spiritual and political dominion [he still holds 150,000,000 of 
the inhabitants of the world subject to his spiritual sway], it 
will be seen that the son of Sarah's slave lifts his head aloft, 
among the great founders of empires, as greater than them 
all. 

"When he left off talking with him, God went up from Abra- 
ham." Vr. 22. This comes to clinch the argument presented 
on page 190 that it was a visible conference (and not simply 
audible) that Jehovah had with Abraham. Jehovah occupied 
a certain spot near to Abraham, and as soon as he ceased talk- 



204 GENESIS 

ing with him, he went up from just there. This literally is re- 
peated in ch. 35: 13, with regard to Jacob, when Jehovah ap- 
peared to him, after his return from Padan-aram, changed his 
name to Israel, blessed him, and confirmed to him the promises 
made to Abraham. In the following chapter (18: 33) we have 
the account of another interview, even more palpably sensible 
and real, which Jehovah, in human form had with Abraham; 
which concludes in this manner: "Jehovah went his way (for 
he had stopped in the way to listen to Abraham's intercession) 
as soon as he left off communing with Abraham." It is ex- 
tremely interesting and no less important to pay attention to 
these sensible and visible appearances of Him who 1900 years 
later "was made flesh and dwelt among us." John 1: 14. 

17: 23 — 27. Abraham makes haste to peefoem what god had 
commanded him. (1897 b. c.) 

23 And Abraham took Ishmael his son, and all that were born 
in his house, and all that were bought with his money, every male 
among the men of Abraham's house, and circumcised the flesh of their 
foreskin in the selfsame day, as God had said unto him. 

24 And Abraham was ninety years old and nine, when he was 
circumcised' in the flesh of his foreskin. 

25 And Ishmael his son was thirteen years old, when he was 
circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin. 

26 In the selfsame day was Abraham circumcised, and Ishmael 
his son. 

27 And all the men of his house, those born in the house, and 
those bought with money of a foreigner, were circumcised with him. 

Nothing distinguishes this great servant and friend of God 
more than the resolution and promptitude with which (in 
virtue of a living and vigorous faith) he fulfilled every indica- 
tion of his will. As the rite of circumcision was painful, bloody, 
repugnant (Ex. 4: 25), and even dangerous, anybody else but 
an Abraham would naturally have waited, consulting in his 
mind when and how he should give effect to the divine com- 
mand; but "in that same day," hardly had God gone up from 
beside him, when Abraham gathered the men of his encampment, 
who could not be less than five hundred or a thousand persons 
(ch. 14: 14), and the m'aster, the son, and the servants, great 
and small, were circumcised without delay. Most worthy it is 
that the spiritual children of Abraham should fix attention 
on this distinctive trait of their father. "If ye be Christ's, then 
are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise." 
Gal. 3: 29. 



CHAPTER 18; 1—8 205 

CHAPTER XVIII. 

VRS. 1 — 8. ABRAHAM ENTERTAINS ANGELS AND THE LORD OF THE 
ANGELS. (1897 B. C.) 

1 And Jehovah appeared unto him by the oaks of Mamre, as he 
sat in the tent door in the heat of the day ; 

2 and he lifted up his eyes and looked, and, lo, three men stood 
over against him : and when he saw them, he ran to meet them from 
the tent door, and bowed himself to the earth, 

3 and said, My lord, if now I have found favor in thy sight, pass 
not away, I pray thee, from thy servant : 

4 let now a little water be fetched, and wash your feet, and rest 
yourselves under the tree : 

5 and I will letch a morsel of bread, and strengthen ye your 
heart ; after that ye shall pass on : forasmuch as ye are come to your 
servant. And they said, So do, as thou hast said. 

6 And Abraham hastened into the tent unto Sarah, and said, 
Make ready quickly three measures of fine meal, knead it, and make 
cakes. 

7 And Abraham ran unto the herd, and fetched a calf tender and 
good, and gave it unto the servant ; and he hasted to dress it. 

8 And he took butter,* and milk, and the calf which he had 
dressed, and set it before them ; and he stood by them under the 
tree, and they did eat. 

\*M. B. V., cheese, or curds.] 

Abraham found the vicinity of Hebron (some 20 miles to 
the south of Salem, which later was Jerusalem, and at that time 
was, or had been, the residence of Melchisedec, ch. 14: 18) so 
much to his liking, that when Lot separated from him, he 
established himself there, in the oak-grove of Mamre, his com- 
panion and ally (ch. 13: 18; 14: 13); and it would appear that 
he had remained principally there, in all the intermediate space of 
twenty or twenty-five years; for Lot, who was then, it seems., 
unmarried, had now a family in Sodom of grown daughters, some 
of them married. Ch. 19: 14, 15. 

In the same year as before, and about three months later, God 
appeared again to Abraham. On this occasion we see Jehovah 
as one of three individuals who presented themselves at the 
tent door of the patriarch. The story of this visit gives us 
a simple and beautiful picture of the courtesy and hospitality 
of those times. It is possible, but not certain, that Abraham 
knew nothing of letters; but hie was a gentleman, and a very 
great gentleman; for sincere and unaffected gentility is in 
its essence one and the same thing in all ages. Seated in the 
door of his tent, beneath the shade of the tree, during the 
heat of the day, Abraham lifted up his eyes and saw that three 
respectable persons had arrived, and were standing near his 
tent. On seeing them, he ran to receive them, and bowing him- 
self toward the earth (as on a later occasion he did with the sonq 



206 GENESIS 

of Heth, ch. 23: 7, 12), he begged him whom he at once saw 
to be the most distinguished of the three, that they would enter 
beneath the shade of the tree and recline there, while he had 
water brought to wash their feet, and prepared for them to eat, 
before they passed on; and the argument which he uses with 
them was that passing so near their servant, they could not 
deny him the satisfaction of using the rites of hospitality with 
them. Here also our attention is called for the first time to 
the usage of washing the feet, when a guest entered the house; 
a usage which appears so frequently in the Bible. Abraham 
had observed something extraordinary in his visitors, and in- 
stead of calling a servant to take his orders, he himself "ran" 
with diligent care to wait upon his guests. Everything is great 
in this great man, who gained for himself the distinction of 
being called "the friend of God." Isa. 41: 8; 2 Chron. 20: 7; 
James 2:23. And when he had himself brought and placed 
before them the dinner which he had had prepared with the 
greatest promptness, so as not to detain them on their journey, 
Abraham stood, in the attitude of a servant (1 Kings 17: 1; 
2 Kings 5: 25), near to them, while they ate. 

18: 9 15. THE PROMISE OF A SON BY SARAH HIS WIFE IS REPEATED, 

WITH AMPLIFICATIONS, TO ABRAHAM. (1897 B. C.) 

9 And they said unto him, Where is Sarah thy wife? And he 
said, Behold, in the tent. 

10 And he said, I will certainly return unto thee when the season 
cometh round ; and, lo, Sarah thy wife shall have a son. And Sarah 
heard* in the tent door, which was behind him. 

11 Now Abraham and Sarah were old, and well stricken in age ; 
it had ceased to be with Sarah after the manner of women. 

12 And Sarah laughed within herself, saying, After I am waxed 
old shall I have pleasure, my lord being old also? 

13 And Jehovah said unto Abraham, Wherefore did Sarah laugh, 
saying, Shall I of a surety bear a child, who am old? 

14 Is anything too hard for Jehovah? At the set time I will 
return unto thee, when the season cometh round, and Sarah shall 
have a son. 

15 Then Sarah denied, saying, I laughed not ; for she was afraid. 
And he said, Nay ; but thou didst laugh. 

[*M. 8. V., was listening.] 

When dinner was done, the men, contrary to all Oriental 
usage, inquired about Abraham's wife; which would surprise 
him not a little, and all the more on seeing that they called her 
by name; a surprise that would prepare his mind for the an- 
nouncement, which was at once made by him who was evidently 
the chief of the three, and who was seated with his back to the 
door of the tent. Sarah, meanwhile, who already had intel- 
ligence of the promise which Jehovah had given on the previous 



CHAPTER 18: 9—15 207 

occasion, that she should be the mother of the son and promised 
heir, incited by her curiosity to know more, and with womanly 
quickness divining, perhaps before her husband did, the quality 
and character of the guests who made the visit, left her own 
tent (vr. 6 and ch. 24: 67), and passing to that of her husband, 
she drew close to the door, behind the curtain or screen (in 
order to see and hear, without being observed), at the back 
of the principal visitor. In the preceding interview, Jehovah 
had promised Abraham that Sarah should have a son, at the 
end of a year (ch. 17: 21), but without anything further. Now, 
however, he tells him that in the spring of the year (as some 
understand the difficult phrase "when the season cometh round"; 
or, more probably, in the time necessary for the production of a 
living child), he would certainly return to him again, and Sarah 
should have a son. As he never repeated the visit, his returning 
again must be understood, of course, of that beneficent providence 
that would bring him a son, in whom the promises should have 
their fulfilment, and of whose birth we are told, in ch. 21: 1, that 
"Jehovah visited Sarah according as he had said, and Jehovah 
did unto Sarah according as he had promised." It is inter- 
esting and profitable to, fix attention on the fact that so near 
the beginnings of the divine revelation, the notable manifesta- 
tions of the providence of God, in mercy or in wrath, are said 
to be his "visits," and "comings." Sarah undoubtedly had 
knowledge of that first promise; but when she heard it for 
herself, and heard the time fixed, she laughed with satisfaction 
(as Abraham had done before), but with a certain degree of 
incredulity. She laughed within herself and standing behind 
Jehovah. But he had observed it, and said to Abraham: "Where- 
fore did Sarah laugh, saying: Shall I of a surety bear a child, 
who am old?" In times of danger and urgent necessity, it is 
well for us to bring to mind the question with which the Angel 
answered that unspoken doubt: "Is anything too hard for 
Jehovah?" Sarah then denied, saying: "I did not laugh;" 
because she was afraid. But he reproved the falsehood, affirm- 
ing that she did laugh. This colloquy between the two mani- 
fests that Sarah had not committed any impropriety in draw : 
ing near to listen, although according to Oriental usage, she 
remained unseen, behind the door or curtain. The word trans- 
lated "Sarah denied" is translated ordinarily to lie; here it is 
to deny the truth. The falsehood of Sarah cannot be excused, 
of course; and yet it is in strict conformity with the usage, and 
even the modern usage, of all peoples who have not the knowl- 
edge and use of the Bible; for them the negation of the truth 



208 GENESIS 

is the most convenient form of evading a difficulty, or of escaping 
from a painful situation. The Bible alone effectually teaches the 
nations to speak the truth. Ps. 58: 3; Jer. 9:4, 5. 

18: 16 — 33. ABRAHAM INTERCEDES ON BEHALF OF SODOM. (1897 B. C.) 

16 And the men rose up from thence, and looked toward Sodom : 
and Abraham went with them to bring them on the way. 

17 And Jehovah said, Shall I hide from Abraham that which I do ; 

18 seeing that Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty 
nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him? 

19 For I have known him, to the end that he may command his 
children and his household after him, that they may keep the way 
of Jehovah, to do righteousness and justice ; to the end that Jehovah 
may bring upon Abraham that which he hath spoken of him. 

20 And Jehovah said, Because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is 
great, and because their sin is very grievous ; 

21 I will go down now, and see whether they have done altogether 
according to the cry of it, which is come unto me ; and if not, I will 
know. 

22 And the men turned from thence, and went toward Sodom : 
but Abraham stood yet before Jehovah. 

23 And Abraham drew near, and said, Wilt thou consume the 
righteous with the wicked? 

24 Peradventure there are fifty righteous within the city : wilt 
thou consume and not spare the place for the fifty righteous that are 
therein ? 

25 That be far from thee to do after this manner, to slay the 
righteous with the wicked, that so the righteous should be as the 
wicked ; that be far from thee : shall not the Judge of all the earth 
do right? 

26 And Jehovah said, If I find in Sodom fifty righteous within the 
city, then I will spare all the place for their sake. 

27 And Abraham answered and said, Behold now, I have taken 
upon me to speak unto the Lord, who am but dust and ashes : 

28 peradventure there shall lack five of the fifty righteous : wilt 
thou destroy all the city for lack of five? And he said, I will not 
destroy it, if I find there forty and five. 

29 And he spake unto him yet again, and said, Peradventure there 
shall be forty found there. And he said, I will not do it for the 
forty's sake. 

30 And he said, Oh let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak : 
peradventure there shall thirty be found there. And he said, I will 
not do it, if I find thirty there. 

31 And he said, Behold now, I have taken upon me to speak unto 
the Lord : peradventure there shall be twenty found there. And he 
said, I will not destroy it for the twenty's sake. 

32 And he said, Oh let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak yet 
but this once : peradventure ten shall be found there. And he said, 
I will not destroy it for the ten's sake. 

33 And Jehovah went his way, as soon as he had left off commun- 
ing with Abraham; and Abraham returned unto his place. 

At the close of the interview, the three men arose to go on 
their way, and turned their faces in the direction of Sodom; 
which, from Hebron, lay to the S. E., on the supposition that 
it was located at the south of the Sea of Sodom. Hebron was 
about 16 miles distant in a straight line to the west of the sea; 
almost opposite to En-gedi, where the terrible defile of Hazazon- 



CHAPTER 18: 16—33 209 

tamar communicated between the sea and the mountains, which 
rose to an elevation of 1500 feet above it. Through this defile, 
some twenty or twenty-five years before, Chedorlaomer and his 
allied kings descended to En-gedi and the vale of Siddim 
where they overcame the five confederate kings, and sacked 
their cities. It is natural, therefore, that the angels, being in 
front of En-gedi, and going towards the same objective point, 
Sodom, should take the same route they did. In compliance 
with the duties of hospitality, Abraham accompanied his visitors 
a considerable distance in taking leave of them. He had ob- 
served with interest and concern that they set out in the 
direction of Sodom, and it awakened his fears for the security 
of his nephew. The interview in his tent had likewise given 
him a more or less correct idea of the exalted station of his 
guests; "angels whom he had entertained unawares." Heb. 
13: 2. Extremely interesting is the soliloquy of Jehovah as he 
walked at Abraham's side; and it manifests with how much 
reality Jehovah speaks of Abraham as his "friend." So also 
Jesus said to his disciples "I no longer call you servants; 
for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth; but I have 
called you friends; for all things that I have heard from my 
Father have I made known to you." John 15: 15. Jehovah, 
therefore, did not wish to conceal from his friend Abraham 
what he was about to do; and apparently the heart of Abraham 
had already a strong presentiment of some terrible calamity 
that was impending; concerned as he was for the security of 
his kinsman, whose worldly tendencies and his intimate associ- 
ations with that most wicked people filled him always with con- 
cern. 

The reason given in vr. 19 for this act of intimate confidence, 
gives likewise a compendious declaration of the reason and 
purpose of the calling of Abraham, and why God had separated 
him from the other peoples of the earth, and brought him into 
such close and confidential relations with himself. The Ver- 
sions in general do not clear up this point, giving us rather 
to understand that it was because Abraham was very faithful 
and holy in the government of his house. But the translators 
have allowed themselves apparently to be misled by the or- 
dinary sense of the words to know; and so Scio translates the 
passage: "For I know that he will command his children," 
etc. (Amat gives the same sense) ; so also the common English 
Version and that of Valera, "For I know him, that he will 
command his children," etc. But the Hebrew text does not 
sanction this rendering, and makes it clear that to "know" is 



210 GENESIS 

used here in a special sense, but one well known in the word 
of God; and so the Revised English Version, together with 
the Modern Spanish Version, translate it as it is given in the 
text: "For I have known him, in order that he may command 
his children and his household after him, that they may keep 
the way of Jehovah, to do righteousness and justice; to the 
end that Jehovah may bring upon Abraham that which he 
hath spoken of him." The word "know" has here the sense 
which the prophet Amos gives it (ch. 3: 2), where God says: 
"You only have I known of all the families of the earth;" 
which is explained in Ex. 2: 25, when God interposed for the 
salvation of his people: "And God saw the children of Israel; 
and God took knowledge (of them)." [M. S. V., "And God 
looked on the children of Israel; and God recognized them (or 
knew them) as his people" — in italics.] In the same sense 
Paul says to the fickle Galatians: "But now that ye have come 
to know God, or rather to be known of God, how turn ye back 
again," etc.? Gal. 4:9. It is the same sense in which Paul 
says once more: "For whom he did foreknow, he also did pre- 
destinate to be conformed to the image of his Son" (Rom. 
8: 29); in all which cases the idea is not that of having more 
or less personal acquaintance with an individual, nor having 
relations of intimacy with him, but to know and recognize him 
as one's own; something which had a very close relation with 
his divine calling. Jehovah had known Abraham, and had 
brought him into the knowledge and friendship of his God, 
"in order that he might command his children and his house- 
hold after him, to keep the way of Jehovah;" that so Je- 
hovah might give fulfilment to all he had promised concerning 
him. 

The same thing is true, in a degree, of all the spiritual 
children of Abraham, God calls them to himself, not merely 
that they may be saved, but that they may direct, and not merely 
direct, but "command" their children and their families to 
walk in the paths of piety and truth, to the end that he mau 
fulfil the promises of blessing given to his faithful people and 
to their children after them. "To you is the promise and to 
your children." Acts 2: 39. If Christian parents thus under- 
stood and practiced their heavenly calling, how differently would 
the cause of God progress in this world? Extremely significant 
is the use of the word command here. There are parents, and 
not a few, who believe that if they give good advice to their 
children, and if to that they add a good example, they have 
performed all their duty, and may well leave their children in 



CHAPTER 18: 16—33 211 

full liberty to do as they like. It is truly lamentable to ob- 
serve in how many families of evangelical parents the children 
are permitted to take a different road, while parental authority 
avails nothing to prevent it. There are other families in which 
the supposed son of Abraham, instead of commanding his chil- 
dren and his household, abdicates his authority in favor of the 
worldly or fanatical wife, and consents that she shall command 
the children and household in a totally different way. Wholly 
conformable with the will of God was the decree of Ahasuerus, 
king of Persia, which he caused to be proclaimed throughout 
the one hundred and twenty provinces of his dominion: "that 

EVEEY MAN SHOULD BEAR RULE IN HIS OWN HOUSE" (Esth. 1: 22) J 

a most salutary order of things which Romanism has com- 
pletely subverted, as far as it is able, causing that, in matters 
of religion, the wife, under the tutelage of the priest, shall 
govern the house, and her husband submit, or go out of it; 
or if not, that she "turn the house into a helV ; to avail myself 
of the expression so much used by fathers to excuse themselves 
from mentioning "religion" or "Bible" within their own doors. 
This is one of the means by which the religion of the priest 
shakes the social and political fabric, and causes to totter the 
columns of public order; as seen today in almost every Roman 
Catholic country. 

In view of such enduring and intimate relations, Jehovah 
determined that he would not conceal from Abraham, his ser- 
vant and friend, the resolution he had taken to examine with 
his own eyes whether the conduct of Sodom and the other 
Cities of the Plain was altogether in accord with the "cry" 
which was going up to him, and govern his conduct according 
to the result. That word "cry" is very expressive, and for 
evil-doers it ought to be very terrible. Their sins and other 
wickednesses go up to God as an incessant "cry" (like the 
shed blood of Abel, ch. 4: 10), which calls for the retributions of 
divine justice; and sooner or later those cries will receive due 
attention. 

Vrs. 20 and 21 may be regarded as a part of the foregoing 
soliloquy; in which case "I will go down and see whether they 
have done," etc., may be interpreted in the same way as in 
the case of the tower of Babylon we interpreted the words 
of Jehovah "Let us go down," etc. (ch. 11: 7), as an accommo- 
dation to our human mode of speech. But it seems very un- 
likely that Jehovah, walking with Abraham in the road from 
Hebron to Sodom, should speak as if he were still in heaven, 
and had not yet descended to earth. It is much more natural and 



212 GENESIS 

proper to understand the words as spoken in Abraham's hearing 
by Jehovah, who, in human form, strode at his side, going 
towards Sodom; and in these words he reveals the personal 
examination he was about to make of the abominations which 
were committed there in the light of the sun, and still more 
under the cover of the night — crimes that seemed to renew 
the violences and abominations of the antediluvians. All this 
is a very human but very expressive mode of speech. As Sodom 
was situated in the depression of the Arabah, something like 
4,300 feet below the mountain range on whose summit the 
four men were at that moment standing, and whence the 
immense concavity of the Sea of Sodom could in the distance 
be discerned, with entire naturalness and propriety he might 
say to Abraham "I will go down and see"; just as Jesus 
presents to us, in the parable of the good Samaritan, "a cer- 
tain man who went down (3,700 feet) from Jerusalem to Jericho, 
and fell among thieves." Luke 10: 30. 

Abraham, by this time fully aware of what he had before 
suspected, seems to have given indication of his wish to detain 
his interlocutor, whose exalted character he now understood; 
and in fact, the two companions passed on in the way to 
Sodom; "but Abraham stood yet before Jehovah." There is no 
doubt that this was the state of things in that moment: Four 
men left the tent of Abraham that afternoon; four men were 
together in the way, at the time when Jehovah revealed his 
purpose of investigating for himself the occasion for the cry 
which was going up to him from Sodom, and Abraham well 
knew that such an investigation could have only one result; 
Abraham detained Jehovah in the way, to intercede on behalf 
of Sodom; so that two of the four stopped in the way, and 
two of them, called "angels," arrived at the gate of Sodom 
that very afternoon; and not only so, but we are told that "the 
two angels came to Sodom at even" (ch. 19: 1), the two whom 
we already know, and who passed on when Abraham "stood yet 
before Jehovah." 

The testimony of the word of God could not be more ex- 
press that he who 1900 years afterwards "was made flesh and 
dwelt among us" (John 1: 14), here took, by way of anticipa- 
tion, the form of a man, accepted the hospitality of Abraham, 
reclined beneath the shade of a tree in front of his tent, ate 
of his food, walked by his side along the road, stopped to listen 
to his intercession for the sinners of Sodom, answered him 
mouth to mouth with indulgent kindness, while Abraham pressed 
him more and more to reduce the number of just men who 



CHAPTER 18: 16—33 218 

would be sufficient to preserve the city from destruction; and 
when Abraham ceased to ask, before the Lord ceased to grant 
his petitions, "Jehovah went on his way, as soon as he ceased 
talking with Abraham, while Abraham returned to his place." 
Vr. 33. Voluntarily blind must he be, and misled by prejudice, 
who will not see in all this, that our father Abraham recog- 
nized (what his descendants according to the flesh denied and 
yet resolutely deny) the fact and certainty that God manifested 
himself to Abraham in human form, and that this God was not 
some inferior divinity, or a superior or supreme angel (according 
to the teaching of Arians), but Jehovah himself; and not 
less unequivocal is the testimony that Moses, who wrote this 
history, recognized it likewise; for had it not been so, it would 
have been very easy for him to guard his readers against 
such an inference. Moses, therefore, and Abraham may be 
regarded as pertaining to the Christian family; and we see 
with how great reason Jesus said to the Jews: "If ye believed 
Moses, ye would believe me; for he wrote of me." John 
5:46. 

Another circumstance well worthy of fixing our attention, and 
especially of fixing the attention of Roman Catholic peoples, 
is that with full knowledge of the fact that it was Jehovah 
with whom he was speaking, and recognizing himself as "dust 
and ashes" in the presence of "the Judge of all the earth" (vrs. 
25, 27), "Abraham yet stood before Jehovah" Surely if Abra- 
ham (and Joshua also teaches us the same lesson, Josh. 5: 13; 
6:1), remained standing in the presence of him whom he recog- 
nized as God in human form, understanding probably that the 
human form was reason sufficient why he should not cast him- 
self on his knees before him, we ought to see that it is a 
shameful idolatry to kneel before a priest in the confessional, 
or before images of saints, representations of dead men and 
women, and even before a consecrated wafer, which they im- 
piously call "The Divine Majesty"! With good reason did 
Peter say to Cornelius, a half illuminated pagan, when he 
fell down before him, to render him religious worship: "Stand 
up; I myself also am a man!" (Acts 10: 26); and the angel 
said to John twice, when he twice placed himself before him in 
the same attitude of worship: "See thou do it not! I am a fellow 
servant of thine, and of thy brethren the prophets, and of them 
which keep the sayings of this book; WORSHIP GOD!" Rev. 
19:10; 22:8, 9. Truly the religion of Abraham and of Moses, 
the religion which Jesus Christ came to establish on earth, and 
which his apostles taught and practiced, is that which ennobles 



'214 GENESIS 

a man, teaching him that not to his "fellow servants," whether 
angels or men, should he pay adoration and worship, but to 
God alone. As Jesus himself puts it: "Thou shalt worship the 
Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve." Matt. 4 : 10. 

The intercession of Abraham on behalf of Sodom is one 
of the most notable and moving narratives contained in Holy 
Scripture. Comprehending perfectly the urgency of the case, 
and knowing how short the time was, allowing the two angels 
to pass on their way to Sodom, Abraham, with holy boldness 
drew locally near to Jehovah, and began by saying: "7s it so 
that thou wilt destroy the righteous with the wicked?" If 
Abraham with full knowledge of the weaknesses of his worldly 
nephew, counts him among the number of "the righteous," 
it ought not to seem strange to us that Peter should tell us 
that in the horrible overthrow of Sodom God "delivered righteous 
Lot, distressed by the lascivious life of the wicked." 2 Peter 
2: 7. And if Jehovah "the Judge of all the earth," admitted the 
plea, it should not cause us the repugnance we feel in repeating, 
without criticism, these words of Peter, and to recognize that 
through the unmerited grace of the God of Abraham, who justi- 
fies the believing sinner, and "imputes to him a righteousness 
apart from works" (Rom. 4: 5, 6), even the worldly Lot in Sodom 
could pass muster among the just! 

Abraham begins with the supposition that, having made his 
examination, it should turn out that there were fifty right- 
eous persons in the city; and he asks whether, on account of 
the fifty, he would not pardon the guilty city. Abraham did 
not know Sodom, and in the belief that there might be fifty 
righteous men there, he proceeds to argue the case, affirming 
that Jehovah would not slay the righteous with the wicked, 
destroying them all alike; and he appeals confidently to the 
rectitude of the "Judge of all the earth." In this Abraham 
teaches us that we likewise ought to use arguments, and es- 
pecially to appeal to the divine promises, in our prayers and in- 
tercessions. Jehovah admits his plea, and tells him that he 
will not only not slay the righteous with the wicked, but that 
he will even spare all those impious sinners, if he should find 
fifty righteous persons within the city. The words "within the 
city," twice repeated, may indicate that among the shepherds 
and other servants of Lot (the older of them educated near 
to the altar of Abraham), there might be just men tending 
his flocks in the mountains, or cultivating his fields in the plain, 
who might enter into the account of the fifty righteous persons; 
but it does not appear that there were any such; they all 



CHAPTER 18: 16—33 215 

seem to have perished alike. The groundless supposition that there 
were fifty righteous persons (even in a low and worldly sense) 
in Sodom, within the city, gives us to understand that not even 
Abraham had a correct idea of the desperate wickedness and 
total corruption of that focus of abominations, where material 
interests, the bonds of family, the claims of society, and other 
human considerations detained "just Lot," as if a prisoner., 
against his will; "who dwelling among them, in seeing and hear- 
ing, vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their law- 
less deeds." 2 Peter 2: 8. Most instructive is this example 
of Lot, and it sets clearly before us how extremely dangerous 
is intimate association with the workers of iniquity, and what 
kind of spiritual suicide those Christians commit, who marry 
into the families of such as are the enemies of God's ways, 
and bind themselves with ties hard to loose, and even with indis- 
soluble bonds, to persons who with rapid steps are hastening 
to the abyss. The lesson is extremely important to our evan- 
gelical people, of whom a multitude of men, and even a larger 
number of women, professing piety, have sacrificed all their 
spiritual interests and their Christian character and influence, 
by this intimate association with "them that know not God, 
and obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ." 2 Thes. 2: 8. 
Jesus has left us the solemn admonition: "Remember Lot's 
wife!" that we may not hesitate, nor falter, in "fleeing from the 
wrath to come" (Luke 17: 32) : but to young and old, to men and 
women, who profess the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, it may be 
said with much frequency and no less urgency: "Remember 
Lot!" 

Having obtained his first petition, Abraham makes a rebate 
of five from the fifty, and with profound humility, as became 
"dust and ashes" in speaking with the Lord, he asks him if 
he will destroy the whole city for the lack of five? Jehovah grants 
this petition also, promising that he will not destroy the city 
if he should find there forty-five just persons. Grateful for 
the petitions already obtained, and apprehensive as to the small 
number of just persons who might be found in Sodom, Abraham 
again deprecates the wrath of the Lord, which might be awakened 
by his daring and his persistence; and he passes successively 
from forty-five righteous persons to forty, to thirty, to twenty, 
and to ten, without Jehovah's manifesting the slightest hesi- 
tancy in granting all he asked. It seems that Abraham waa 
afraid, or at least ashamed, to pass beyond this point; and the 
result shows that such was the general wickedness of these cities, 
which God "has set forth as an example, suffering the punish- 



216 GENESIS 

ment of eternal -fire''' (Jude 7), that even if the patriarch had 
gone further, and reduced the number from ten to five, Jehovah 
might have conceded this also, without any advantage whatever 
to those guilty cities. 

It is worthy of note that in all this wonderful interces- 
sion in favor of the sinners of Sodom, Abraham never addresses 
his interlocutor as "my Lord" (as he did in vr. 3 and as Lot 
does in ch. 19: 18), but always and only as "the Lord," showing 
that he did not use the word "Lord" as a title of respect and 
veneration, but as a designation of the Supreme Being. 

When the interview was ended, "Jehovah went on his way" 
in which Abraham had detained him, while the latter returned to 
the oak-grove of Mamre, near to Hebron, to wait there the 
outcome of events; which was not delayed for even a single 
day. 

CHAPTER XIX. 

VES. 1 — 11. LOT, SODOM AND THE ANGELS. (1897 B. C.) 

1 And the two angels came to Sodom at even ; and Lot sat in 
the gate of Sodom : and Lot saw them, and rose up to meet them ; 
and he bowed himself with his face to the earth ; 

2 and he said, Behold now, my lords, turn aside, I pray you, into 
your servant's house, and tarry all night, and wash your feet, and 
ye shall rise up early, and go on your way. And they said, Nay ; but 
we will abide in the street all night. 

3 And he urged them greatly ; and they turned in unto him, and 
entered into his house ; and he made them a feast, and did bake 
unleavened bread, and they did eat. 

4 But before they lay down, the men of the city, even the men 
of Sodom, compassed the house round, both young and old, all the 
people from every quarter ; 

5 and they called unto Lot, and said unto him, Where are the 
men that came in to thee this night? bring them out unto us, that 
we may know them. 

6 And Lot went out unto them to the door, and shut the door 
after him. 

7 And he said, I pray you, my brethren, do not so wickedly. 

8 Behold now, I have two daughters that have not known man ; 
let me, I pray you, bring them out unto you, and do ye to them as is 
good in your eyes : only unto these men do nothing, forasmuch as they 
are come under the shadow of my roof. 

9 And they said, Stand back. And they said, This one fellow 
came in to sojourn, and he will needs be a judge : now will we 
deal worse with thee, than with them. And they pressed sore upon 
the man, even Lot, and drew near to break the door. 

10 But the men put forth their hand, and brought Lot into the 
house to them, and shut to the door. 

11 And they smote the men that were at the door of the house 
with blindness, both small and great, so that they wearied them- 
selves to find the door. 

The three men presented themselves at the door of Abra- 
ham's tent at midday — "during the heat of the day;" and after 



CHAPTER 19: 1—11 217 

that hour happened all that is related in the preceding chapter. 
The afternoon, therefore, must have been far advanced when 
the two men who passed onward, when Abraham detained Je- 
hovah to intercede with him in favor of Sodom, arrived there; 
but they arrived before night. Following the same road a3 
Chedorlaomer and his allies, by Hazazon-tamar, or En-gedi (ch. 
14: 7; 2 Chron. 20: 2), there would be 16 miles in a straight 
line to En-gedi (but double that distance by the rough and wind- 
ing paths which they would have to travel), and 20 to 25 miles 
from there to Sodom; — a plain indication that they did not make 
the journey on foot. [This, however, does not mean to say 
that they made it by miracle either, but probably in accordance 
with the laws of a higher sphere, in which they moved; as we 
know it was with Jesus, after his resurrection, who, having still 
a body of "flesh and bones" (Luke 24: 39; Eph. 5: 30), which could 
be handled and felt and proved not to be "spirit" ate and drank 
with his disciples (Acts 10: 41), like these angels at the tent- 
door of Abraham; vanished from the sight of the two disciples 
in Emmaus (Gr. "became invisible to them"), to appear unan- 
nounced in the midst of the disciples in Jerusalem, as with locked 
doors they stood discussing the flying reports of his resurrection 
(Luke 24: 31, 36, 39); and at last ascended up into heaven, by 
his own volition, as being no longer subject to our limitations 
of time and space; — whence in like manner he shall come in the 
day of his glory and his power. — Tr.] 

That same afternoon, then, the messengers from heaven, the 
ministers of divine vengeance (called "men" in chapter 18, but 
"angels" here) arrived at the principal gate of Sodom, at the time 
that Lot was seated in the gate, to enjoy the cool of the evening, 
and to converse with the other people of quality, who gathered 
there for the same purpose. The gates or entrances of ancient 
cities were not merely openings in the wall, secured with "gates 
and bars," but large and very strong structures; for, in assaults 
upon the city it was there that the combat was fiercest. The 
walls in this part were very thick and often double, giving space 
for chambers, or even dwellings, within the wall itself, (Josh. 2: 
15; Acts 9: 25; 2 Cor. 11: 32, 33), so that the structure which was 
called a city gate, was more like a fortress, or a tower, than an 
entrance-way (2 Sam. 18: 24, 33; Ezek. 40: 15); and there, within 
the gate, or immediately adjacent to it, justice was administered 
and public affairs considered (Job 29: 7; 31: 21; 2 Sam. 19: 8; 1 
Kings 22: 10), and in its refreshing shade the people of most dis- 
tinction sat down to enjoy the pleasures of social life. Lot, then, 
as he was one of the notables of the city, was seated there when 



218 GENESIS 

the two angels arrived, and on seeing in their very appearance 
that they were persons of note, he rose up to receive them with 
the attention due to their station. He courteously begged them 
to turn aside from the course they were going (right into the 
city), and enter into his house, which was probably close by (see 
2 Kings 7: 9 — 11), and spend the night there, and wash their feet, 
and the next day go on their way. They, who brought a commis- 
sion very different from what Lot supposed, at first declined his 
invitation, preferring rather to spend the night in the street. 
This the courteous and hospitable Lot would not consent to, and 
using urgency with them, they turned aside with him and entered 
into his house. The courtesy and hospitality of Lot, and his in* 
sistence in their exercise, saved the life of himself and his 
family; which fact the apostle had in view in the passage al- 
ready cited, in the case of Abraham: "Be not forgetful to enter- 
tain strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels un- 
awares." Heb. 13: 2. The entertaining of angels on that night 
was his temporal salvation. The angels brought as their com- 
mission to probe to the bottom the character of the inhabitants 
of Sodom (whose ill-fame was notorious not only in all the 
country, but its "cry" had reached unto heaven), and to act in 
accordance with the result; so that without his knowing it, the 
moment was extremely critical for him, as a citizen of that city 
of horrible wickedness. Thus it is that the critical moments of 
life usually pass us unperceived, and there is for us no other safe 
rule but these: "Trust in him at all times" (Ps. 62:8); "Do 
righteousness at all times" (Ps. 106:3); and, "Pray without ceas- 
ing." 1 Thes. 5: 17. 

It is not necessary to enter minutely into the events of that 
night. The entrance of such distinguished strangers through 
the principal gate of the city, had called greatly the public atten- 
tion; and the beauty of their persons (as befitted their exalted 
character and mission), awakened the depraved passions of those 
base wretches, whose city has given name to the most destestable 
of vices. The rights and duties of hospitality, eulogized by the 
wise of all ages, have been held most sacred among all the nations 
who possess even the rudiments of civilization. The modern use 
of hotels, and houses of public entertainment, has greatly changed 
the forms of hospitality; but where these are not to be found, 
private individuals have necessarily to exercise it, or men re- 
lapse into a state of savagery; and the duty of protecting the 
person of a guest has always been counted among the most sacred 
of obligations. The Bedouin of the desert, who would kill a 
stranger without scruple on meeting him outside his nomadic en- 



CHAPTER 19:1—11 219 

eampment, if for any cause he has received him into his tent, will 
defend him at the cost .of his own blood; and once a stranger has 
eaten of his food, the Arab holds himself as obliged thence- 
forward to treat him as a friend. Lot having invited the two 
strangers to come under the shelter of his roof, on seeing the 
violence that the people of his town wished to do them, used this 
as his principal argument why they should leave them in peace: 
"Forasmuch as they are come under the shadow of my roof." He 
exposed his own person nobly in their defence, going out to the 
insensate and brutal crowd, to bring those shameless profligates 
to their senses; but we can find no words adequate to reprobate 
the proposal which he made, of sacrificing his two daughters in 
defence of his guests — a thing which his celestial visitors would 
never have permitted; and they, seeing how the fierce crowd threw 
themselves upon Lot and that they were doing their utmost to 
break the door, put forth their hands and pulled him in to them, 
smiting the assailants also with blindness; and they, though blind, 
wearied themselves in their fruitless endeavors to find the door. 

The proposal which Lot made to those brutish ruffians, to sacri- 
fice his two daughters in defence of his guests, brings to mind the 
observation already made in the case of Abraham when he denied 
his wife in Egypt; to the effect that the honor and purity of 
women, and above all, of unmarried women, were in those times 
matters of very little importance, compared with what the Chris- 
tian religion has made them. Without this, woman is and every- 
where has been regarded as the slave and plaything of man. Five 
hundred years after the days of Lot, the respectable old man who 
in Gibeah entertained the traveling Levite, made the identical 
proposal of sacrificing his daughter in the defence of his guest; 
while the Levite, in fact, delivered up his concubine-wife to the 
crowd, in order to save his own person. Judg. 19: 24, 25. 

This manifestation of bestial passion seems almost incredible 
to us; and nevertheless, the whole of it was repeated, literally re- 
peated, by the inhabitants of Gibeah of Benjamin, in the case 
just indicated; for whom Moses had to no purpose written the 
story of Sodom; and they brought upon themselves and upon their 
tribe a vengeance little less horrible than the divine judgment 
which overthrew Sodom with terrible destruction. See Judges, 
chs. 19, 20 and 21. Lot was a man of the highest respectability; 
but this availed him very little that night. They looked upon 
him still as a foreigner, a man foreign to their ways and their 
religion (if they had any), and they regarded it as a great imperti- 
nence on his part that he should undertake to give them lessons 
in good morals, or interpose to prevent the attainment of their 



220 GENESIS 

wishes. The little he had left of the religion of his uncle made 
him a mark for the derision and hatred of the citizens of Sodom: 
"This one fellow (they exclaimed) came in to sojourn, and he will 
needs be a judge! Now will we deal worse with thee than with 
them!" Vr. 9. The poor and vacillating Lot! He was neither one 
thing nor the other. How far was he from possessing the firm, 
resolute and decided character of the "believing Abraham!" 

19: 12 — 14. ANGELS. THE FAMILY OF LOT. THE WABNING DISRE- 
GAEDED. (1897 B. C.) 

12 And the men said unto Lot, Hast thou here any besides? son- 
in-law, and thy sons, and thy daughters, and whomsoever thou hast 
in- the city, bring them out of the place : 

13 for we will destroy this place, because the cry of them is 
waxed great before Jehovah ; and Jehovah hath sent us to destroy it. 

14 And Lot went out, and spake unto his sons-in-law, who mar- 
ried* his daughters, and said, Up, get you out of this place ; for 
Jehovah will destroy the city. But he seemed unto his sons-in-law 
as one that mocked. 

*Or, were to marry. 

The "angels" of vr. 1 are here called "men," as in ch. 18: 2, and 
again are called "angels" in vr. 15. For the first time we have 
mention of "angels" in this chapter, except "the Angel of Je- 
hovah," who appeared to Hagar (ch. 16:7), which is quite a 
different matter; and it will not be amiss for us to stop at this 
point and consider the subject a little. We ought at once to free 
ourselves of the erroneous belief, created chiefly perhaps by the 
poets and artists, that angels have wings and fly with them. The 
"cherubim" and "seraphim" are represented in the Bible as having 
wings — two, four, and even six, each; but although the hierarchy 
of heaven is something almost unknown to us, on reading of the 
"Archangel" (not several, but one only), of "angels," of "authori- 
ties," of "thrones," of "dominions," of "principalities," of "pow- 
ers," we may say that the "cherubim" (of whom we treated some- 
what in commenting on ch. 3: 24), and the "seraphim" (mentioned 
only by Isaiah, in Isa. 6: 2, 6), are not "angels" (== messengers, or 
"sent ones"), and in fact we are never told that they are "messen- 
gers" of God, nor "sent" by him with any commission; and so of 
the others to whom allusion has been made. In Holy Scripture 
not even once are "angels" spoken of as winged beings. Three 
times (Dan. 9: 21; Rev. 8: 13; 14: 6) an angel is spoken of as 
"flying," and if we please we may imagine him as -flying with ex- 
tended wings; but if the frequent mention of "the shadow of Je- 
hovah's wings" does not give us to understand that "when Je- 
hovah appeared to Abraham," he came in the form of a winged 



CHAPTER 19: 12—14 221 

man, it is not a likely supposition that the angels who appeared 
to Abraham, to Hagar, to Lot, to Baalam, to Jacob, to Joshua, to 
Gideon, to Daniel, to Mary, to Joseph, to Zacharias, to Peter, to 
Paul, to John and to others, presented themselves to them as 
winged beings. Neither will it be proper to imagine that, because 
the angels sent with commissions from heaven to earth presented 
themselves in the form of men, therefore they must necessarily 
have the same form when they present themselves in heaven be- 
fore God. It will be a good thing for us to accustom ourselves to 
reflect that all our personal knowledge is limited to the objects 
and types of this terraqueous globe of ours, and that our ideas are 
cast in the mould of corporeal things that do not rise two full 
leagues above the soil we tread, and habituate ourselves to wait 
with patience, with modesty and moderation until the great God 
shall show us things of his own, belonging to a higher sphere. 
"If I have told you earthly things — things on earth — and ye be- 
lieve not, how shall ye believe if I tell you of heavenly things" 
or things in heaven? John 3: 12. 

But the hour of doom for Sodom was rapidly hastening on. 
Without any investigation whatever, of itself "Sodom declared its 
sin and hid it not" (Isa. 3: 9), and the verdict of heaven took 
immediate effect. The sun of another day, or the moon of an- 
other night, was not to witness the enormities which all practiced 
there (see vr. 4) — and shamelessly; and there were not "found 
there ten righteous persons" to put in fear or to shame those 
workers of iniquity. Time was urgent. The men hurriedly asked 
Lot about his family: "Hast thou here any besides? son-in-law, 
and thy sons and thy daughters, and whomsoever thou hast in the 
city, bring them out of the place; for we will destroy this place, 
because the cry of them is waxen great before Jehovah; and Je- 
hovah hath sent us to destroy it." Whatever may have been the 
physical cause of this destruction, these two angels gave the 
order which put it into operation; and until they gave the order, 
the cause or causes remained inoperative. Vr. 22. Fortunately 
Lot had no sons; Sodom would have been a bad place for the 
education of boys. Sons-in-law indeed he had, and married daugh- 
ters; who would naturally pay more attention to their husbands 
than to their father. With regard to these "sons-in-law" there 
is dispute, as to whether they were sons-in-law in fact, or only in 
prospect. But I do not believe that it is the use of any people to 
call those "sons-in-law" who are only engaged to one's daughters. 
In any case, when the angels asked after the members of his 
family, "sons-in-law, and thy sons and thy daughters," it is 
clear that they inquired after the husbands of his married daugh- 



222 GENESIS 

ters; and when vr. 14 says that "Lot went out and spoke with his 
sons-in-law," the word is naturally to be understood in that sense. 
It is certain that the words can without violence he translated 
"sons-in-law, who were to take his daughters" — the unmarried 
daughters he had there at home — if there were any reason to be- 
lieve that they were only engaged to be married. But of this there 
is not a vestige of proof or even a suggestion; and when the day 
was dawning, and the angels pressed Lot saying: "Arise, take thy 
wife and thy two daughters that are here, lest thou be consumed 
in the punishment of the city" (vr. 15), it is evident that they 
now understood that he had daughters somewhere else. Four 
daughters, then, at least, had Lot; two married, and two single 
ones at home. 

But the urgency that Lot used with his sons-in-law bore little 
fruit; it all seemed to them like an untimely jest, an unseasonable 
practical joke he was playing off on them; and the more urgent 
he became to convince them of the danger which threatened them, 
the more convinced they became that the man had lost his senses: 
"An old imbecile!" "A terrified old dotard, who had perhaps been 
sleeping badly!" It is evident that the little religion that re- 
mained to Lot in Sodom, did not give him any more credit with 
his own family than with his fellow-citizens. The same thing 
happens with worldly Christians today, when they talk of re- 
ligion to those who know them. Lot did not gain any more with 
his married daughters, than with their husbands. If he had said 
to them that the house was afire, at once they would have got up 
to save themselves; but to tell them, and passionately, that Je- 
hovah was going to destroy the city with fire, rained down from 
heaven, was an evident sign that the man was crazy. 

And so it is that multitudes of persons, and even many who pro- 
fess faith in Christ, look upon all serious treatment of the Second 
Advent of the Lord, and the Day of Judgment, as matters of no 
personal concern to them; and they believe, and sometimes say 
so, that our Lord and his apostles, went a little astray, in their 
preaching, and in their writings, in the importance and promi- 
nence which they gave to this subject, "so many ages ahead of 
time": forgetful or ignorant of the fact that the day of Jesus 
Christ, "the Great Day of God Almighty" (Rev. 16: 14), is a day 
as great for the dead as for the living, and that it is all practically 
one with us whether Christ at his coming wake us from our graves 
or from our teds; and for that reason a thousand years more or 
less, in the question of time, is a matter of no importance to us, 
provided we keep it always in view, and live in such a way that 
we "shall have confidence in the day of judgment," "and be not 



CHAPTER 19: 15—22 223 

ashamed before him at his coming." 1 John 2: 28 and 4: 17. See 
Rev. 16: 14; 2 Tim. 4: 1; Acts 10: 42; 17: 30, 31; Matt. 16: 27; 
Luke 21: 34, 36; Matt. 10: 15; 11: 23, 24; Luke 17: 28—30; Rom. 
2: 3—16; 1 Thess. 5: 4; 2 Pet. 2: 6, 7; Jude 5, 7. 

19: 15 — 22. lot is still undecided, and clings to his worldly 

INTERESTS. (1897 B. C.) 

15 And when the morning arose, then the angels hastened Lot, 

saying, arise, take thy wife, and thy two daughters that are here, 
lest thou be consumed in the iniquity of the city. 

16 But he lingered ; and the men laid hold upon his hand, and 
upon the hand of his wife, and upon the hand of his two daughters, 
Jehovah being merciful unto him : and they brought him forth, and set 
him without the city. 

17 And it came to pass, when they had brought them forth 
abroad, that he said, Escape for thy life ; look not behind thee, 
neither stay thou in all the Plain; escape to the mountains, lest 
thou be consumed. 

18 And Lot said unto them, Oh, not so, my lord : 

19 behold now, thy servant hath found favor in thy sight, and 
thou hast magnified thy lovingkindness, which thou hast showed 
unto me in saving my life ; and I cannot escape to the mountain, lest 
evil* overtake me, and I die : 

20 behold now, this city is near to flee unto, and it is a little one. 
Oh, let me escape thither (is it not a little one?), and my soul shall 
live. 

21 And he said unto him, See, I have accepted thee concerning 
this thing also, that I will not overthrow the city of which thou hast 
spoken. 

22 Haste thee, escape thither; for I cannot do anything till thou 
be come thither. Therefore the name of the city was called Zoar. 

l*Heb. the evil.] 

Lot returned chagrined and sad from the homes of his sons-in- 
law, abandoning his married daughters to their fate, — in the rea- 
sonable belief that, "sons-in-law" means married men and not men 
about to marry. Confused and disconcerted with a thousand 
conflicting thoughts and purposes, he made little progress in ar- 
ranging the effects most necessary to carry with them in their 
precipitate flight. When the day was breaking, the angels urged 
the prompt departure of those he had at home, lest they also 
perish in the destruction of the city. But Lot still delayed. 
Whether it was that he hoped that at the last moment his sons- 
in-law and married daughters would resolve to accompany them, 
or whether it was that among his many possessions he could not 
decide which were the effects most important to take with them, 
the certainty is that like a shipwrecked voyager, who allows him- 
self to drown rather than let go of his bags of gold, Lot waa 
running the greatest risk, with the precious time that he was 
losing; until, in the mercy of Jehovah towards him, the men 
laid hold of his hand, and of the hand of his wife, and of the hand 



224 , GENESIS 

of his two daughters, and with a holy violence brought them 
out, and left them without the city. Of the two angels one was 
evidently the superior, as we observed of the three men in front 
of Abraham's tent; and he commanded Lot that with the utmost 
speed he should escape for his life, without looking back; and 
that he should not stop in all the Plain, but escape to the moun- 
tain, lest he perish. 

To this mountain range, then, which rose 2000 or 2500 feet on 
the eastern side of the Plain, the angel commanded Lot that he 
should escape with the greatest haste. But Lot still interposed 
other difficulties. Looking toward the lofty precipices, inaccessible 
except by the narrow valleys and steep defiles through which 
entered the waters of the elevated lands of what later was the 
country of Moab, he was frightened at the apparent impossibility 
of finding a place of safety there (forgetful that God would not 
command him to do an impossible thing to save his life), and 
fearful of perishing in the conflagration before he could scale 
those heights, he besought permission to flee to the little city of 
Bela, which was there close by, alleging its insignificance as a 
reason why the angel should grant it to him as a place of secure 
refuge. Accepting his urgent plea, and sparing that city, which 
was one of the five, the angel again commanded him to use the 
utmost speed in reaching it, because the case was urgent; and, "I 
(he said) can do nothing until thou be come thither." How con- 
solatory are these words, spoken to the most worldly and least 
consistent and well-deserving of the household of faith! 

"He shall give his angels charge concerning thee, 
to keep thee in all thy ways." Ps. 91: 11. 

So strict a charge had the angel received to guard the life of 
this nephew of Abraham, who walked with limping steps the 
path of life, that they could not execute their commission of 
vengeance against those sinners among whom he lived, until 
they saw him in a place of safety! For this reason that city 
Bela was afterwards called Zoar (—Little). 

19: 23 — 26. the catastrophe op sodom, gomorrah, admah and 
zeboim, cities of the plain. lot's wife. (1897 b. c.) 

23 The sun was risen upon the earth when Lot came unto Zoar. 

24 Then Jehovah rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brim- 
stone and fire from Jehovah out of heaven ; 

25 and he overthrew those cities, and all the Plain, and all the 
inhabitants of the cities, and that which grew upon the ground. 

26 But his wife looked back from behind him, and she became a 
pillar of salt. 

For the last time the sun had risen for Sodom; its rays were 



CHAPTER 19: 23—26 225 

shooting over the earth when Lot reached Zoar. Little enough 
time had he to arrive, between day-dawn and the fatal hour; for 
in that moment "Jehovah rained upon Sodom, and upon Gomorrah 
brimstone and fire from Jehovah, out of heaven." If the punish- 
ment of the Cities of the Plain had occurred by night, it would 
have been more terrifying; but the deliberate, dispassionate and 
irresistible wrath of heaven would have been less forcibly pre- 
sented. The dangers and fears of the night had given place to 
the peaceful light of the morning; the sun was shooting its beau- 
tiful and benignant rays, which passing above the mountains on the 
east, were striking fairly against the mountains on the west of the 
sea, when Lot and his fugitive daughters, with flying steps, 
reached Zoar. And now the angel could do what he was forbidden 
to do until that moment; he gave the order, and a rain of brim- 
stone and fire fell from heaven, and, "turning the cities of Sodom 
and Gomorrah into ashes, condemned them with an overthrow, 
making them an example to those who should thereafter live un- 
godly." 2 Pet. 2:3. "And Jehovah overthrew (or 'overturned') 
those cities, and all the plain" — cities, soil, inhabitants and all! In 
the battle of the four kings against the five, those who did not 
fall by the sword, and those who were not taken captive, "fled to 
the mountain" (ch. 14:10); but on this occasion there was none 
to escape except Lot and his family and the city he had begged as 
a refuge for himself, and which, by the especial protection of 
heaven, was delivered for his sake: for from above a rain of fire 
was falling, and underfoot the solid earth was overturned by 
horrible upheavals and submersions of the ground. 

This circumstance, although clearly marked, and many times 
repeated in the original text of Scripture, both in the Old and the 
New Testament, seems in general to have passed almost unper- 
ceived. It is a fact worthy of fixing our attention, that the He- 
brew of the Old Testament and the Greek of the New never men- 
tion this event without words which mark it as a cataclysm, a 
violent and sudden upturning or moving of the earth; an over- 
turning of terra firma. Thirteen times in the Old Testament the 
subject is referred to, and once in the New, without ever using 
any other word to characterize the phenomenon. In the English 
Version, forty-seven different words are translated "destroy" in 
the Old Testament, and ten words in the New; what signifies 
then, the tenacity with which so many different writers lay firm 
hold on this word "overthrow," or "overturn," to describe the 
destruction of Sodom? In Hebrew haphak signifies to turn upside 
down, and although it is used figuratively also (like the word 
"overthrow" in English), the root idea is to turn, to overturn, to 



226 GENESIS 

turn upside down; and the same thing is true of the word 
katastrophe in the Greek. 2 Peter 2: 6. It is therefore impos- 
sible that the Bible could teach with greater clearness and per- 
sistency that Sodom and Gomorrah suffered a material overturn- 
ing or overthrow; and it seems eminently proper that under these 
circumstances this idea should be preserved in the translation, 
and not be lost sight of, by substituting therefor, as is done in 
most Spanish Versions, the words "destroy" and "destruction." 

No phenomena of physical nature have been as much studied in 
ancient and modern times as the Dead Sea and the causes which; 
have produced its actual condition; but in spite of the specula- 
tions and fables of the ancients, and the scientific investigations 
of modern times, it is possible that we shall have to content our- 
selves with the few data furnished us by Holy Scripture, till "the 
men of Nineveh shall rise up in the judgment with the men of 
this generation" (Matt. 12: 41), and) with them, the men of 
Sodom; or until we shall find ourselves with Lot himself and with 
Abraham, and learn from them the details of the case. 

The catastrophe of Sodom is in the Bible attributed to two dis- 
tinct causes; to wit, "brimstone and fire" rained down from 
heaven, and the "overturning" not only of the cities, but of "all 
the Plain" as well, by volcanic action. These two causes are as 
clearly indicated in the Hebrew Bible as the two causes which 
produced the deluge of Noah (to wit, 40 days and 40 nights of 
continued and torrential rain, and "the breaking up of the foun- 
tains of the great deep") ; and in both cases the least efficient of 
the two is that which has called most our attention. Forty days 
of such continued rains would have caused a deluge on dry land, 
but without elevating at all the level of the ocean (see comments 
on ch. 8:1 — 14, pp. 97 — 100); and a rain of brimstone and fire — 
or of lightnings — from heaven, while burning up the cities, and 
killing the inhabitants, and setting on fire the many natural de- 
posits of bitumen, or asphalt, which abounded in the Vale of 
Siddim (ch. 14: 10), would not have been sufficient to transform 
that paradise of delights, comparable with "the garden of Je- 
hovah," into the frightful solitude and horrible desert which it 
has since remained. It is probable, or better said, it is certain 
that in the days when the Vale of Siddim was a paradise, there 
did not exist above ground that enormous mountain of salt which 
is now found at the south of the sea, but that its appearance 
above ground was due to the upheavals of the earth, which ac- 
companied "the overturning of those cities and all the Plain" (vr. 
25) ; and it is certain that from this resulted the intolerable 
saltness of those waters and the complete desolation of that large 



CHAPTER 19: 23—26 227 

and fertile Plain. It is well known that salt mines beneath the 
surface of the earth are to it an inexhaustible fountain of exu- 
berant fertility and luxuriant beauty; but above the ground, it is 
death to every living vegetable substance; — as Moses says in 
Deut. 29: 23: "The whole land thereof is brimstone, and salt, 
and burning; that it is not sown, nor beareth, nor any grass 
groweth therein; like the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah, 
Admah and Zeboim, which Jehovah overthrew in his anger and 
in his wrath." 

As we know little of the physical geography of the depression of 
the Arabah in the days of Lot, we have not the data, and prob- 
ably shall never have them in this life, to form a clear and satis- 
factory idea of the causes and effects of that overthrow. The 
opinion, favored at one time, and which some still wish to hold, 
that the fresh water of the river Jordan, in the days of Lot 
passed through the Sea of Sodom, purifying thus its waters, now 
intolerably salt, and finally emptied into the Red Sea, will have to 
be abandoned, in virtue of the discovery in recent years, that the 
surface of that sea is 1300 feet below the level of the other. But 
the circumstance that the Sea of Sodom has not, and in the days 
of Abraham and Lot did not have an outlet for their waters, would 
not hinder their being at that time healthy and good. The 
catastrophe of Sodom occurred, according to the common chro- 
nology about 450 years after the Flood; and although that may 
have left in the vast concavity of the sea a large deposit of salt 
water, nevertheless the river Jordan, according to proximate 
calculations, discharges into it 6,000,000 tons of sweet water every 
24 hours; a quantity which in the days of the glory of Palestine 
was doubtless much greater; and this, together with the rivers 
which from all sides fell into it, from the lands which afterwards 
were those of Moab, of Edom, and of "the South" of the tribe 
of Judah, would be enough to preserve its waters as healthy, 
and a fountain of as many blessings, as the rivers and lakes of 
Damascus, which likewise have no outlet; and yet they make that 
city to be for the Arabian poets the oeau ideal of Paradise — 
"the Eye of the Desert" and "the Pearl of the Orient." 

The distinguished German geologist Leopold von Buch, whose 
letter in reply to certain inquiries of his, Dr. Robinson publishes 
in his Researches says: "Could some mass of basalt be discovered 
in the southern part, or towards the southern extremity of the 
Dead Sea, one might believe that a basaltic dyke had been heaved 
up at the time of the celebrated catastrophe; just as took place 
in 1820, near the isle of Banda, and at another time, at the foot 
of the volcano Tornate. The movements which accompany the 



228 GENESIS 

breaking out of such a dyke, are of a character to produce all the 
phenomena which have changed this interesting region, without 
exercising any very marked influence upon the form and con- 
figuration of the mountains round about. The fertility of the soil 
depends sometimes upon light accidents. It is not probable that 
bitumen would be adapted to augment it. But it is very possible, 
that earthquakes may have brought out a larger mass of fossil 
salt; which, being carried by the waters to the bottom of the 
valley, would suffice to take away its productive power." And 
then he adds, with a certain disagreeable flavor of German infi- 
delity: "Lot would hardly have been so struck with the fossil 
salt, as to suppose that his wife was changed into salt, had there 
been any knowledge of its existence between the layers of the 
mountain, before the remarkable catastrophe." Biblical Re- 
searches, Vol. II. pp. 607, 608. According to this, that enormous 
mountain of fossil salt, seven miles long, two or three wide, and 
100 to 150 feet high (which touches the sea on the southern part), 
either did not exist above the ground before that time, or was so 
buried beneath a covering of good earth, that it communicated 
freshness and exuberant fertility to the soil; as happens in the 
country surrounding salt mines today; but raised from beneath 
the valley, or denuded of its covering of earth, it would transform 
that image of the paradise of Jehovah into a complete desolation; 
as it has been from that day to this. Some volcano which sud- 
denly vomited brimstone and fire upon the condemned cities, set- 
ting in conflagration at the same time the great quantities of 
bitumen or asphalt, to the south of the sea, accompanied likewise 
by upheavals and depressions of the earth, elevating that moun- 
tain of fossil salt and sowing with salt all those regions, and, in 
fine, leaving in the bottom of the sea that enormous abyss of 
1300 feet in depth, to be filled up with those waters accursed of 
God, would completely meet the conditions of the case, "without 
exercising any very marked influence upon the form and con- 
figuration of the mountains round about." But in the revelations 
of the Day of Judgment, when Lot and his fellow citizens shall 
give an account of themselves, and when the Lord "shall bring 
to light the hidden things of darkness and make manifest the 
counsels of the heart" (1 Cor. 3: 5), we shall know all about it. 
In view of the profound interest which this subject inspires, I 
have extended my comments perhaps more than was necessary 
upon this catastrophe of Sodom: — that imperishable monument of 
the wrath of God against the unbridled excesses of wicked men. 
If any reader should not be pleased to have me account for this 
tremendous chastisement of the sinners of Sodom in great part 



CHAPTER 19: 23—26 229 

by natural causes, it will be sufficient to remind him that in the 
Bible little account is made of secondary causes, and the great 
God is he who does it all, whether mediately or immediately: 
"Your heavenly Father maketh his sun to arise upon the evil and 
the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust." Matt. 
5: 45. 

To this point is reserved the account of the sad fate of Lot's 
wife. After relating the complete destruction of Sodom, Moses 
says that Lot's wife, who followed along after him, had looked 
back, against the express order of the angel (vr. 17), and had 
been converted into a pillar, or monument, of salt. It is needless 
to say that nothing remains of such a monument in our day; and 
in a "Valley of Salt" (as it is called in 2 Sam. 8: 13), where a 
whole mountain of salt stands bare and naked, on whose abrupt 
declivities Robinson relates that he repeatedly saw "precipices 
forty or fifty feet high, and hundreds of feet long, of pure crystal- 
lized fossil salt," cut into rude columns by the rains, it is not 
unlikely that Josephus (and several of the fathers of the Ancient 
Church) should have found some upright blocks of salt which 
reminded him of the pillar of salt, which in the days of Abraham 
commemorated the little wisdom and the tragic end of Lot's 
wife. 

What might be her motive for looking back, it is not hard 
for us to conceive: — the place of her birth and education; the 
home of her brothers and sisters, her parents and friends; the 
place where her married daughters had remained; the city which 
contained all her worldly possessions (which were not small), 
forming in their aggregate all that on which her affections were 
placed! — "where her treasure was there was her heart also;" 
and her eyes obeying the promptings of her heart, she turned 
and looked thitherward, to see if in fact any harm had happened 
to it, and perhaps with some doubt whether their precipitate 
flight had not been a useless sacrifice of their worldly interests, 
or an act of egregious folly. Lot and his two daughters entered 
Zoar; but on looking for the wife and mother, she was not to be 
found! Later they found her on the road, turned into a pillar or 
monument of salt. 

On this tragic event Jesus based a solemn admonition to his 
disciples (and to us no less) with regard to the haste with which 
we should prepare, and be always prepared, for the day of his 
coming in power and glory: "Remember Lot's wife!" Luke 17: 
13. An admonition is this which is suitable to all real Christians 
— and was intended to be — for all time, and down to the Consum- 
mation of the Ages; since the time of our Lord's return is pur- 



230 GENESIS 

posely hidden from us, and from all heaven as well. Matt. 24: 
36. And indeed that day is so incomparably great — "the great 
day of God Almighty" — that the question of the time is a matter 
of practically no importance, and a thousand years sooner or a 
thousand years later, do not weigh a feather in the great account; 
— as great to the dead as to the living, to holy Abel who has been 
6000 years in heaven, as to the last sinner who shall repent and 
believe unto life everlasting. The admonition was therefore as 
timely in Christ's day as in our own, or as it ever will be; the 
day is none the greater for being in fact very near, and none the 
less important to us, for being at least another thousand years in 
the future. And in many respects this resembles the admonition 
which two apostles based on the never-to-be-forgotten fact that, 
with two exceptions, the people who came so happily out of 
Egypt, never arrived at Canaan, since through their own un- 
belief and disobedience they "were overthrown in the wilderness." 
1 Cor. 10: 1—11; Heb. 3: 16—4: 1; Jude 5. The wife of Lot came 
forth unharmed from Sodom; but by her unbelief, disobedience, 
and dilatoriness to "flee from the wrath to come," and her attach- 
ment to worldly goods and interests, she remained half way of the 
short journey, turned into a pillar of salt. It is also never to be 
forgotten or lost sight of that in presenting us this example of 
Lot, of Sodom and of the wife of Lot, Jesus himself guarantees 
to us the authenticity and minute accuracy of this history. Luke 
17: 28—32. 

19: 27 — 29. abbaham sees the smoke of the conflagration feom 
a distance. (1897 b. c.) 

27 And Abraham gat up early in the morning to the place where 
he had stood before Jehovah : 

28 and he looked toward Sodom and Gomorrah, and toward all 
the land of the Plain, and beheld, and lo, the smoke of the land went 
up as the smoke of a furnace. 

29 And it came to pass, when God destroyed the cities of the 
Plain, that God remembered Abraham, and sent Lot out of the 
midst of the overthrow, when he overthrew the cities in which Lot 
dwelt. 

The Vale of Siddim was 4300 feet below the elevated point of 
observation which Abraham occupied, near Hebron, when he in- 
terceded for Sodom with Jehovah, on the afternoon of the preced- 
ing day; he could not save Sodom, but he did save Lot and his fam- 
ily from that ruin. Hebron stands in a direct line some 16 miles 
from En-gedi, whither the angels had directed their steps on the 
way to Sodom (ch. 18:22); and Abraham, looking across the 
mountain country, could see, not the waters of the sea (visible 
from the Mount of Olives, near to Jerusalem), but he could see 



CHAPTER 19: 27—29 231 

perfectly the vast depression between the mountain ranges, 
which was the site of the sea; "and looking towards Sodom 
and Gomorrah and toward all the land of the Plain, he beheld, 
and lo! the smoke of the land went up, as the smoke of a fur- 
nace." On the western side of the sea, in all its length, the moun- 
tains rise precipitously 1500 feet above the waters; and 2000 
to 2500 feet on the eastern side. It was therefore materially im- 
possible that 15 miles away Abraham should see the Vale of Sid- 
dim and the Plain of the Jordan; but stretching his vision over 
and in the direction of Sodom and the Vale of Siddim, he saw 
the dense columns of smoke that went up. 

If "all the Plain," in vr. 28, includes all the space embraced 
by the corresponding phrase, in ch. 13: 19, "all the Plain of the 
Jordan" that Lot beheld (see Note 20, on the Plain of the Jordan), 
then the catastrophe of Sodom must have been much more exten- 
sive than is commonly supposed; embracing fully half of the 
valley of the Jordan (which is expressly so called at the brass 
foundries of King Solomon; see 1 Kings 7: 46, R. V.), opening 
anew the cleft or fracture of the rocky substratum of the country, 
which originally created the long, wide and deep depression of 
"the Arabah" (see comments on Peleg, ch. 10: 25, p. 129), and 
causing, with the inrushing waters of the Jordan, clouds of 
steam, which might well compete with "the smoke of a furnace," 
which arose from the Cities of the Plain and the concavity of the 
Sea of Sodom. But if the Mosaic account is strictly interpreted, 
"the Plain of the Jordan" extended no farther south than the 
northern extremity of the sea, where "the Plain," of which "the 
Cities of the Plain" formed a part, began; for, as I have already 
indicated, the Bible never says that these cities were situated in 
"the Plain of the Jordan." The Hebrew word (kikkar), which is 
never but once used of any other "plain," means literally "circuit" 
or "surroundings," and it is probable that the two, "the circuit" or 
"surroundings" of the Jordan and "the circuit" or "surroundings" 
of the sea, were regarded as practically one, overlapping each 
other at the north of the Sea of Sodom, where they joined; and 
that the "kikkar" of the Jordan and the "kikkar" of the five cities 
were terms of vague use, extending all the way from the midlands 
of Jordan, where Solomon had his brass foundries, to beyond the 
southern limits of the Sea of Sodom. It is not necessary, there- 
fore, to understand that "all the land of the Plain," in vr. 28, 
extended farther towards the north than the present limits of the 
Dead Sea, or included any part of the "Plain of the Jordan," 
properly so called. 

As Abraham rose up very early in the morning to go to his 



232 GENESIS 

• 

point of observation, he would necessarily have witnessed the 
discharge of brimstone and fire passing through the aerial heavens 
upon Sodom, if such there had been: since it did not begin till 
Lot entered Sodom, after the sun had arisen upon the earth. Vr. 
23. This seems to me a fact of great importance; for we are 
not told anything of the kind. Nor did he see the flames .either, 
but only dense clouds of smoke. We seem to have in this a 
notable confirmation of the authenticity and accuracy of the 
story in Genesis. A writer of fiction would have presented the 
whole scene to the vision of Abraham. One of the most respect- 
able and estimable of commentators says "that he went to the 
spot where he had the day before held his favored communion 
with Jehovah, which was doubtless a position commanding a full 
view of the Cities of the Plain, and the adjacent valley of the 
Jordan. And here, what a scene of woe bursts upon his sight!" 
"Not the buildings only and the inhabitants are sinking in the 
conflagration, but the very ground itself on which they stood 
shares in the awful catastrophe! Sulphureous smoke, mingled 
with lurid gleams of fire, is constantly rising up in dense, pitchy 
masses, and constitutes all that Abraham is now able to see." 
Bush's Notes, Vol. I, p. 328. I repeat, it is remarkable that the 
text says nothing about all this. With the Researches of Robin- 
son and others in our hands, we now know that Abraham would 
have had to travel five or six leagues by the roughest of winding 
mountain paths in order to reach a point of observation over- 
looking that scene and offering to his sight that horrible spectacle; 
but at the distance of five leagues, in that clear, diaphanous at- 
mosphere, he could have seen and noticed that rain of fire and 
burning brimstone, if it descended through the atmospheric 
heavens, which have an elevation of at least fifty miles above the 
earth; all which suggests the idea that possibly that rain of 
brimstone and fire may have been the effect of a sudden outburst 
of a volcano situated in the bottom of the valley; perhaps in the 
very part where the sea now measures 1300 feet in depth, and 
which so much resembles the crater of an extinct volcano. If 
such a discharge of fire and brimstone did not rise 3000 feet, it 
would have been hidden from the eyes of Abraham by the lofty 
mountains which overhang the western side of the sea, and fill 
up the intervening distance of 15 or 16 miles.* 

♦The recent terrific destruction of cities and towns and estates by the 
explosion of the volcano Pelee, in the Island of Martinique, West Indies, 
In the year 1902, may well illustrate what I suppose is meant by "brim- 
stone and fire from heaven," in the case of the guilty Cities of the 
Plain ; though probably on a much smaller scale. The rain of "brimstone 
and fire" and incandescent ashes, though thrown to a vast height, would 



CHAPTER 19: 30—38 233 

19: 30 — 38. lot and his two daughters. (1897 b. c.) 

SO And Lot went up out of Zoar, and dwelt in the mountain, and 
his two daughters with him ; for he feared to dwell in Zoar : and he 
dwelt in a cave, he and his two daughters. 

31 And the first-born said unto the younger, Our father is old, 
and there is not a man in the earth to come in unto us after the 
manner of all the earth : 

32 come, let us make our father drink wine, and we will lie 
with him, that we may preserve seed of our father. 

33 And they made their father drink wine that night : and the 
first-born went in, and lay with her father ; and he knew not when she 
lay down, nor when she arose. 

34 And it came to pass on the morrow, that the first-born said 
unto the younger, Behold, I lay yesternight with my father : let us 
make him drink wine this night also; and go thou in, and lie with 
him, that we may preserve seed of our father. 

35 And they made their father drink wine that night also : and 
the younger arose, and lay with him; and he knew not when she 
lay down, nor when she arose. 

36 Thus were both the daughters of Lot with child by their 
father. 

37 And the first-born bare a son, and called his name Moab : the 
same is the father of the Moabites unto this day. 

38 And the younger, she also bare a son, and called his name 
Ben-Ammi : the same is the father of the children of Ammon unto 
this day. 

Lot continued but a short while in Zoar, because for some reason 
lie was afraid to remain there. Nothing shakes one's nerves like 
an earthquake; much more, such a one as this. It is probable or 
certain that the upheavals of the earth, such as caused the "over- 
turning of those cities and all the plain," would leave that 
region in a state of volcanic perturbation for a considerable time, 
and the low rumbling of the earth, with eruptions of fire from 
time to time, threatening a second visitation of the wrath of 
heaven, would keep Lot and his daughters in constant alarm. 
Zoar was situated at the foot of, or somewhat within, the mountain 
range to the east of the sea, "at the mouth of Waddy Kerak," says 
Robinson, (our Spanish Bible Dictionary locates it still farther 
to the south) that is to say, at the mouth of the river or torrent 
of the ancient Kir-Moab; "through which, says Dr. Robinson, 
used to pass and still passes the principal road between Judea 

not have been visible to Abraham, had it been vomited forth by a volcano, 
now sunken in the Dead Sea. * * Since the above was written, I have 
read an article from the pen of the distinguished scientist, Prof. G. 
Frederick Wright, of Oberlin College, Oberlin, Ohio, who has lately been 
over the ground, examining the topographical conditions for himself ; 
being already familiar with the oil-gas regions of the United States, and 
having recently visited "the still more remarkable oil-fields at Baku, on 
the Caspian Sea ;" and his impressions incline him to believe that the 
secondary causes which produced the catastrophe of Sodom were the 
ignition of vast subterranean deposits of petroleum and gas, by volcanic 
agency. See Bible Student and Teacher, for June, 1905, pp. 428, 429.— Tr. 



234 GENESIS 

(round the southern side of the sea) and the country of Moab." 
See also the testimony of Jerome and others, given in Note 
20, p. 156. Since, then, Zoar was the key to Moab on its western 
side, a fortified town with a Roman garrison (in the fourth cen- 
tury), at the entrance of the mountains, unless the mountains 
should sink, Lot had no cause to fear in that account; but 
he was afraid, and went still farther into the mountains. Perhaps 
also he found himself ill at ease in Zoar, — a stranger, a fugitive, 
poor, and with no more resources than he was able to bring with 
him in his precipitate flight; and perhaps he was ill-regarded 
for what he, or his God, had had to do with the calamity which 
had come upon that region; although it was at his entreaty that 
Zoar escaped the general destruction. However that may be, he 
did not feel quiet or secure there, and he went farther into the 
mountains; where, finding a cave, he and his daughters made 
themselves as comfortable as they could. This the angel had 
not counseled him to do, nor would one less wise than an angel 
have advised it. Under such circumstances, a solitary and indo- 
lent life was the worst he could have chosen. Tired of life and 
filled with melancholy, it was natural that he should flee from 
society; as in like circumstances men and women not a few have 
taken refuge in convents and monasteries, to discover, when 
too late, that these are neither a safe refuge, nor a gate of 
heaven. The angel told him that he should escape to the moun- 
tain, in the pressing urgency of the moment; but he would have 
advised him to return as soon as possible to the encampment and 
altar of his uncle Abraham, assured that he would find there a 
joyful welcome. But no; rather, thought Lot, live a solitary 
life in the mountains, with the little he had been able to save 
from the wreck of his worldly possessions, than to confess to his 
uncle the errors of his past life! 

What happened there, horrible as it was, is not surprising. The 
lame excuse which some have desired to make for the daughters 
of Lot, namely, their belief that the whole world had perished, 
or all the men who could marry with them, is an absurdity, for 
women who had but a little before gone forth from Zoar; which, 
although a small place, was sufficiently large to have a king 
(ch. 14: 2) ; and if the excuse be pleaded, that there was no man in 
the earth who was willing to marry young women who had lost 
all their former possessions, and would go into the mountains to 
seek them in marriage, the truth which this contains would not 
excuse their detestable conduct, any more than it would excuse 
it in other women in like circumstances. Their father had the 
blame of exposing himself and them to a life of celibacy in those 



CHAPTER 20: 1—7 235 

mountains; as innumerable men and women have found it in the 
solitude of the cloister; and Lot ought to have known that two 
damsels brought up in Sodom, and whom he himself but a little 
before had offered to the brutality of the furious crowd that sur- 
rounded his house, could not be regarded as patterns of modesty 
and propriety. The whole thing is shameful in the extreme, and 
sets in a clear light how calamity, and the temptations to evil- 
doing which it brings, tenaciously pursue those who walk with 
hesitating steps the path of duty and honor. For such persons 
one calamity and one fall are likely to serve as stepping-stones 
for another. Satan does not know how to pity the victims who 
fall into his nets. Of the Prince of Darkness it may be said, as 
the prophet says of the pitiless king of Babylon, that "he openeth 
not the house of his prisoners" (Isa. 14: 17), but rather he makes 
their past errors and sins, and the calamities that result there- 
from, to serve them as a temptation and excuse for other new 
errors and sins. The example of Lot lends emphasis to the 
petition of the Lord's Prayer, "Lead us not into temptation, but 
deliver us from evil" (or from the Evil One) ; and it teaches us 
not merely to repeat the prayer, but to practice it also. Lot placed 
himself in such temptation. The Bible relates the case (as it 
always does) in all its revolting hideousness, not for the enter- 
tainment of fools, nor for the offense of the prudish, but for the 
solemn admonition of all: "Let him that thinketh he standeth 
take heed lest he fall." 1 Cor. 10: 12. 

It is to be noticed that the Moabites and the Ammonites both 
peopled that mountain country, where their two fathers were born; 
the Moabites as far to the north as the River Arnon, which 
empties into the Dead Sea, about midway of its length, from north 
to south, opposite to En-gedi; and the Ammonites farther to the 
north, between the Arnon and the river Jabbok; and, driven from 
thence still later by the Amorites, they withdrew from the river 
Jabbok and went farther into the desert of Arabia; but they 
bordered still upon the Moabites; and the two were always the 
implacable enemies of the children of Israel. 

CHAPTER XX. 

VRS. 1 — 7. ABRAHAM IN GERAR, WHERE HE AGAIN DENIES HIS WIFE. 

(1896 B. C.) 

1 And Abraham journeyed from thence toward the land of the 
South, and dwelt between Kadesh and Shur ; and he sojourned in 
Gerar. 

2 And Abraham said of Sarah his wife. She is my sister : and 
Abimelech kin? of Gerar sent, and took Sarah. 

3 But God came to Abimelech in a dream of the night, and said 



236 GENESIS 

to him, Behold, thou art but a dead man, because of the woman 
whom thou hast taken ; for she is a man's wife. 

4 And Abimelech had not come near her : and he said, Lord, wilt 
thou slay even a righteous nation? 

5 Said he not himself unto me, She is my sister? and she, even 
she herself said, He is my brother : in the integrity of my heart and 
the innocency of my hands have I done this. 

6 And God said unto him in the dream, Yea, I know that in the 
integrity of thy heart thou hast done this, and I also withheld thee 
from sinning against me : therefore suffered I thee not to touch her. 

7 Now therefore restore the man's wife ; for he is a prophet, and 
he shall pray for thee, and thou shalt live : and if thou restore her 
not, know thou that thou shalt surely die, thou, and all that are 
thine. 

It was natural that after such an event as that related in the 
preceding chapter, Abraham should break up his encampment, 
and remove from a place so charged with painful memories for 
him. And in fact, leaving Mamre, or Hebron, he removed towards 
the S. W., to the land of "the South," on the road to Egypt (ch. 
13: 1), and dwelt between Kadesh (z=Kadesh Barnea, Num. 13: 
26; 32:8) and Shur (ch. 25:18); and he sojourned awhile in 
Gerar, in the land of the Philistines (12 miles to the south of 
Gaza) ; where, or in which vicinity, it is probable that Isaac was 
born. It would seem that this was the first visit that Abraham 
made to that small city, whose neighborhood was the favorite 
residence of Isaac. Those lands of the South were more to the 
liking of these two patriarchs than those of the north; because it 
was natural that the latter being more fertile, should be more 
rapidly peopled with Canaanites, who apparently had but re- 
cently come to the country (ch. 12: 6 and 13: 7); and because 
there the cities were more numerous and larger; and also because 
the great extent of unoccupied lands in the South gave free and 
abundant pasturage to their vast flocks and herds. The lot of the 
tribe of Simeon fell precisely in this land of "the South;" from 
which we may know that it was not then the desert it now is, 
where none but Arabs of the desert would care to live. There, in 
Gerar, for the first time since he left Egypt, Abraham seems to 
have taken a house in a city; a small town, we should call it if 
it did not have a king; because 90 years afterwards, Abimelech 
(probably a son of this one) said to Isaac: "Go from us; for 
thou art much mightier than we." Ch. 26: 16. There, in the town, 
Abraham thought he found himself in the same danger as in 
Egypt, where city life exposed his wife to the observation of 
curious eyes. It is something almost incredible that at 89 years 
of age, this woman should have retained her extraordinary 
beauty to such a degree that Abraham should resort to the same 
expedient of falsehood, of which he had availed himself 33 years 



CHAPTER 20: 1—7 237 

before in Egypt, and with the same object. Sarah, nevertheless, 
lived 38 years longer; whence we infer that she might still 
possess the personal attractions of a well preserved woman of 50 
in our day. Abraham lived 76 years after this, dying at the age 
of 175; and it is supposable that then, as now, the life of women 
was- ordinarily as long as that of men. 

If the reader should suppose that the word "falsehood" is too 
severe, which I again use with regard to this sin of Abraham (a 
graver offence now than before, ch. 12: 13), let him pass his eye 
on to vrs. 12, 13, where Abraham himself confesses to Abimelech 
that, in virtue of the blood relationship existing between the two, 
as half brother and sister (or at least as uncle and niece), by 
mutual agreement this had been their usage since (as he said) 
"God made me to wander from the house of my father"; that is 
to say, from the time that he left Haran for the land of Canaan — 
a period of 24 years. The falsehood of Ananias and Sapphira his 
wife, was of the same class — a half truth, spoken to deceive. 
Acts 5: 1 — 3, 8 — 10. When the Bible lays bare the sins of the 
great servants of God in all their deformity, removing every veil 
and disguise, it ill becomes us to palliate or excuse them. 

We find no way to excuse such duplicity; for the excuse which 
mitigated the first offence, in Egypt, when Abraham was still a 
novice in the ways of Jehovah, fails him in this case. But it is 
natural for men to lie (Ps. 58: 3), and only among the nations 
and peoples educated under the influence of the Bible is it easy 
and ordinary among serious and decent persons to speak always 
the truth. The French and Spanish have an adage which says 
it all: "Children and fools speak the truth." This is almost 
the last vice to be extirpated among the converts from paganism; 
and a multitude of our converts from Romanism are in almost 
the same case. Pascal in his "Provincial Letters" sets forth with 
abundance of proofs, taken out of the writings of their own, and 
these their most famous masters, how Jesuitism teaches its 
adepts to suppress the truth, and even to lie with a good con- 
science. We have no reason whatever to believe that this perni- 
cious system is any better now than in the days of Pascal; and 
Jesuitism is nothing more than the quintessence of Romanism. 

In addition to the personal attractions which Sarah may have 
had, it is probable that the desire of relating himself by mar- 
riage with a prince as rich and powerful as Abraham, had its part 
in the alliance which Abimelech proposed to form. It seems that 
Abimelech, after the manner of the kings of that time, adopted 
the same arbitrary procedure as the powerful king of Egypt in 
similar circumstances had used; he sent and took Sarah, and 



238 GENESIS 

carried her to his house. But God again interposed for the pro- 
tection of the woman in whom were deposited the hopes not only 
of Abraham, but of the whole human race; in spite of the sin 
which her husband had committed. And if it be asked why he 
did not punish Abraham for such sin, and why the Bible does not 
even censure him for it, I reply, just as in the case of Noah (p, 
121) : 1st. Because God does not deal with those who are really 
and truly his servants on the footing of a King who rigidly ad- 
ministers justice, but of a loving and pardoning Father. The doc- 
trine of Paul, that "there is now therefore no condemnation for 
them that are in Christ Jesus" (Rom. 8:1), was as certain then 
as it is now, though not as clearly denned; and with regard to 
those paternal chastisements with which God corrects his chil- 
dren for their amendment (Heb. 12: 7, 8), Abraham doubtless had 
his share of them, as we shall see, like all the rest. 2nd. Those 
who are familiar with the Holy Scriptures do not need that the 
Bible should condemn every act of improper conduct, in order that 
they may know that it is displeasing to God. And it is well to 
bear always in mind that God's divine revelation ought to please 
us in the very form in which he has been pleased to give it, with- 
out demanding any reason for his procedure. "Blessed is he 
whosoever shall find no occasion of stumbling in me." Luke 7: 24. 

God interposed, therefore, for the protection of that woman 
from whom Moses and the prophets, and Christ himself, "accord- 
ing to the flesh," were to descend, without reference to the sin 
of Abraham which had given occasion for the error of Abimelech; 
and in dreams of the night he put him in mortal terror, on 
account of his having taken, though innocently, the wife of 
Abraham, and threatened with certain death both himself and 
all of his, if he did not restore the man his wife. Abimelech 
protested his innocence and the honorableness of his procedure; 
a protest which God readily admitted, saying that for this very 
reason he had withheld him from sinning against him, and did 
not permit him to touch the woman; but he made even more 
peremptory his demand that he return her at once. 

Three things here call our attention: 1st. That God could 
communicate with the Philistine, without doubt a pagan, with 
as much facility, explicitness and certainty as with Abraham 
or Moses; and Abimelech did not doubt it any more than he 
would doubt the communications received from Picol, the cap- 
tain of his army. Ch. 21: 22. See also the like case of Baalam, 
in Num. 22: 9 — 20. Now more than ever, while many who pro- 
fess to believe in God, deny the fact, and even the possibility, 
of a supernatural revelation, it is necessary to recognize and 



CHAPTER 20: 8—18 239 

constantly to afirm that a God who cannot communicate with 
his creatures, and that, with the greatest precision and cer- 
tainty, is in nowise better than the gods of wood and stone. 
2nd. That the criminal acts of a pagan (whatever he the re- 
ligion he professes and whoever the gods he worships) are sins 
committed against Jehovah, the only true God: "I also with- 
held thee from sinning against me." 3rd.. That the destruction 
of Sodom and Gomorrah was known and recognized as the act 
of Jehovah, even by the pagans round about, who were disposed 
to blame him for using too great severity. Only thus can be 
explained those words of Abimelech, in vr. 4: "Lord, wilt thou 
slay even a righteous nation?" 

20: 8 18. ABKAHAM, ABIMELECH AND SAEAH. (1896 B. C.) 

8 And Abimelech rose early in the morning, and called all his 
servants, and told all these things in their ears : and the men were 
sore afraid. 

9 Then Abimelech called Abraham, and said unto him, What 
hast thou done unto us? and wherein have I sinned against thee, 
that thou hast brought on me and on my kingdom a great sin? thou 
hast done deeds unto me that ought not to be done. 

10 And Abimelech said unto Abraham, What sawest thou, that 
thou hast done this thing? 

11 And Abraham said, Because I thought, Surely the fear of 
God is not in this place ; and they will slay me for my wife's sake. 

12 And moreover she is indeed my sister, the daughter of my 
father, but not the daughter of my mother ; and she became my 
wife : 

13 and it came to pass, when God caused me to wander from 
my father's house, that I said unto her, This is thy kindness which 
thou shalt show unto me : at every place whither we shall come, say 
of me, He is my brother. 

14 And Abimelech took sheep and oxen, and men-servants and 
women-servants, and gave them unto Abraham, and restored him 
Sarah his wife. 

15 And Abimelech said, Behold, my land is before thee : dwell 
where it pleaseth thee. 

16 And unto Sarah he said, Behold, I have given thy brother a 
thousand pieces of silver : behold, it is for thee a covering of the 
eyes to all that are with thee : and in respect of all thou are 
righted. 

17 And Abraham prayed unto God : and God healed Abimelech, 
and his wife, and his maid-servants ; and they bare children. 

18 For Jehovah had fast closed up all the wombs of the house 
of Abimelech, because of Sarah, Abraham's wife. 

Abimelech rose early in the morning (for it is plain that he 
slept little, if at all, after God had made to him such an an- 
nouncement), and "called all his servants" (which in Hebrew 
style means the princes and chiefs of his people), and had no 
difficulty in making them understand and believe the import 
of the revelation of the preceding night; for the men feared 
greatly. Next he called Abraham, and reproved him respect- 



240 GENESIS 

fully, but justly and severely, for the unseemly action which 
he had committed. It is undeniable that pagans are fully aware 
of the criminality of many of the sinful acts which they com- 
mit, so that Paul does not hesitate to say that they are "with- 
out excuse" before God. (Rom. 1: 18); and it is so even with 
regard to those sins which they commit without hesitation or 
scruple; and on this ijact is based the possibility of convinc- 
ing them of sin, and effecting their genuine conversion to God. 
Among these sins, adultery and the robbery of another's wife, 
are those most universally recognized as such by all the 
nations and peoples of the world; but there can be no doubt 
that the interview which Abimelech had just had with God 
in dreams, awakened and quickened his natural conscience to 
such a degree that he ingenuously confessed that Abraham had 
been the cause of bringing upon him and upon his kingdom a 
great sin. The hand of God had already come down on Abime- 
lech, and upon his wife, and upon his maid-servants, in some 
manner inexplicable by us, but which they well understood; so 
that Jehovah said to him (vr. 7), that Abraham was a prophet 
and would pray for him that he should not die; and in vr. 17 
we are told that Abraham, in fact, prayed to God, and "God 
healed Abimelech, and his wife, and his maid-servants, so that 
they bare children." 

This is the first time that the word prophet occurs in the 
Bible, and it is well to fix in our minds that it does not signify, 
either first or principally, an announcer of future events, but 
rather one who has intimate relations with God, and from him 
receives communications to make them known to men. In 
this sense Abraham was a great prophet, although he has not 
foretold anything to us. It signifies also one who spoke or wrote 
under the influence of the Holy Spirit (2 Pet. 1: 21); in which 
sense Barnabas (Acts 13: 1) and Mark and Luke were prophets. 
And not only so, but in the Old Testament those were reputed 
prophets who spoke under the impulse of any spiritual influence, 
even though it were that of the spirits of darkness. 1 Sam. 
10: 10—13; 18: 10, 11; 1 Kings 22: 10, 22, 24; Jer. 23: 13. It is 
altogether probable that the false prophets, who played so con- 
spicuous a part in the histories of the Old Testament, were 
not mere liars and vulgar imposters, but men of weight and 
capacity (like the great false prophet Baalam), who were, on 
many occasions, the mouth-piece of Satan and his satellites; 
much in the same way as the true prophets were of Jehovah 
See 1 Kings 22: 23. The same thing happened, mutatis mutandis, 
with regard to the ancient pagan oracles (comp. Acts 16: 16 — 19), 



CHAPTER 20: 8—18 241 

and it happens still in the modern form of the same, to wit, the 
"mediums" among the Spiritists* of today; who, aside from 
the deceptions they commit, and the frauds they practice, are 
sometimes as certain that they have received communications 
from the invisible world, as was Zedekiah the son of Chenaanah 
(1 Kings 22: 21 — 24), of whom we have the most unimpeach- 
able testimony that this really happened in his case. 

Abraham, without explaining (in reply to Abimelech's inter- 
rogatory) what he had seen in the city to awaken his distrust, 
confesses frankly that he had come to believe, with or without 
cause, that "there was no fear of God in that place, and that 
they would kill him for his wife's sake." It is impossible for 
us to duly appreciate the insecurity which in ancient times 
everywhere prevailed in this regard, and which yet prevails 
among the peoples and societies where there is no fear of God 
nor knowledge of his word. Protestant countries are of all 
others the most privileged in this respect, as in almost every 
other. But making all allowances, it is hard for us to account 
for such apparent timidity, in so small a city, on the part 
of a man who had pursued and routed four kings (ch. 14: 25); 
having, as he must have had at a short distance from the spot, 
his encampment and his valiant soldiers. But as Abraham 
cannot be accused of cowardice or pusilanimity, there must 
have been some cause for his fears, which in so compendious 
a history has not been related to us. This does not at all 
excuse his sin, which we have already characterized as great 
and inexcusable; but it brings to mind the lesson that it is 
easy, alas how easy! to repeat a sin which has once been com- 
mitted; and the imitation of his conduct by his son Isaac, in 
this same city of Gerar, 90 years later (ch. 26: 7), teaches us 
how much easier it is to imitate the sins and weaknesses of 
good men, than their virtues; and how it is that the sins of 
parents live again and are perpetuated in their children. 

It is not necessary to repeat here what we have said in 
another place (ch. 12: 9 — 20), with regard to the difficulty of 
explaining the pretext which Abraham alleges for calling the 
woman his sister who was really his wife. But whether she 
was (1) the niece of Abraham, being the "Iscah" of ch. 11: 29, 
daughter of his brother Haran; or whether it be (2) that 
Haran was only the half brother of Abraham, being the son 
of Terah by a former wife, and Abraham (65 years younger), 

*The Spanish form of this word is far more appropriate and expres- 
sive than the familiar English one "spiritualist," to which they have 
no honest claim, there being nothing spiritual about them. — Tr. 



242 GENESIS 

the son of Terah by a second wife, so that in this sense Sarah 
was the daughter of the same father, but not of the same 
mother; or whether it be (3) that Sarah was his own half 
sister, being the daughter of Terah by a second wife, after the 
death of the former, or by a secondary wife or concubine, while 
the former was still alive; and so Abraham might say, in a 
literal sense, that she "was the daughter of my father, but not 
the daughter of my mother, and she became my wife"; — in 
whichever way it may have happened, it is all one in this re- 
gard: a half truth does not fail of being a complete falsehood, 
when spoken for the purpose of deceiving. The essence of 
the lie consists in the intention to deceive; and it does not 
greatly matter just what may be the means adopted to effect 
it, whether fallacious words or fallacious actions, suppressions 
of the truth, or incomplete statements; it is all the same in 
fact, though not in form, and God regards them as falsehoods, 
I have extended my comments on this point because of its great 
practical importance, and above all in Roman Catholic coun- 
tries, where, under the influence of a deeply corrupted form 
of Christianity, and the prohibition and disuse of the Bible 
from age to age, the vice of untruthfulness is almost universal. 
We ought to make the greatest efforts that our Protestants may 
be always distinguished (1) by their love of the Bible, (2) by 
the religious observance of the Lord's day, and (3) by always 
speaking the truth. 

In requital of the offence which he had committed in taking 
away Abraham's wife, Abimelech "took sheep and oxen and 
men-servants and maid-servants and gave them to him, and 
he restored him Sarah his wife." Abimelech also said to him 
that his land was before him, and he might dwell in whatever 
part of it he liked best. And it seems that, in fact, Abraham 
remained in the land of Abimelech not only until Isaac was 
born, but for a long time after that; as we understand from 
vr. 34. 

The words which Abimelech addressed to Sarah, in vr. 16, 
are not easy for us to translate, or to explain, satisfactorily. It 
is possible that he put them in this enigmatical form, pur- 
posely availing himself of a double sense, with the object of 
suggesting more than he wished to say, and as a mixture of 
courtesy, of wit, of delicate reproof, and of disguised excuse 
for the offence committed. As is natural, therefore, the dif- 
ferent Versions give them many and various renderings. The 
sense given in the Modern Spanish Version is that which 
Gesenius prefers, and also it is that given me by one of the 



CHAPTER 20: 8—18 243 

most distinguished Rabbis of America, the late Rev. Dr. A. P. 
Mendes, who had the goodness to revise my first translation 
of Genesis. In addition to the sheep and oxen and servants 
already given to Abraham, Abimelech gave him likewise, in 
the name of Sarah, and in requital of what had happened to 
her, a large sum of money, and said to her: "Behold I have 
given to thy brother a thousand shekels of silver" (= $600 
gold of our money; which was then and there worth many 
times this sum) ; see, this shall serve thee as reparation (Heb. 
a covering of the eyes), for all that has happened to thee, 
and with all men: and so she was vindicated." Gesenius explains 
the "covering of the eyes" as the expiation of a fault, making 
one dissemble the offence, as if he did not see it; but in any 
case the "covering of the eyes" suggests the idea of a veil 
for the eyes; and this is the sense which is preferred by the 
Revised English Version. Thus it was that on seeing Isaac 
walking in the field and coming to meet them, Rebekah, who 
had been unveiled in the presence of the servants of Abraham 
who accompanied her, "took her veil and covered herself." Ch. 
24: 65. It is quite possible that Sarah on leaving the life of 
the country to live in the city, had used there the same liberty 
to which she was accustomed in the camp of Abraham, among 
her own people; and it is very certain that in Egypt, when 
she was much younger, she committed this act of grave im- 
prudence, exposing her extraordinary beauty to the sight of 
everybody (ch. 12:14, 15); and it seems, that in this way, 
Abimelech reminds her that women, and above all, handsome 
women, ought to cover themselves with a veil in the presence 
of men; and the thousand shekels of silver would supply her 
with abundance of veils for this purpose. He does not tell 
her so plainly, of course; but as his words admit of a double 
sense, they could not less than carry this covert insinuation. 
The following words also admit of a double or triple sense; 
the Revised English Version regarding them as the words of 
Abimelech to Sarah; and still other senses can be found in the 
commentaries. But whether it be that the beautiful but im- 
prudent and much indulged woman was "vindicated," or "re- 
proved," or "confuted," or "convicted" and silenced, the disagree- 
able incident was thus closed. We evangelicals also have some 
indiscreet Sarahs, who because they misunderstand the "liberty 
wherewith Christ has made us free," or who affect foreign 
usages, expose themselves to even graver censure. It will be 
well for them to take warning from the wife of Abraham, and 
not bring reproach on the name of Christ and his cause. 



244 GENESIS 

To this occurrence and to the other like it, which happened, 
as we have just said, in Egypt, the Psalmist alludes when he 
says: 

"He hath remembered his covenant for ever, 

the word which he commanded to a thousand generations; 

the covenant which he made with Abraham, 

and his oath unto Isaac, 

and confirmed the same to Jacob for a statute, 

to Israel for an everlasting covenant, 

saying: Unto thee will I give the land of Canaan, 

the lot of your inheritance; 

when they were but a few men in number, 

yea, very few and sojourners in it. 

And when they went about from nation to nation, 

from one kingdom to another people, 

he suffered no man to do them wrong; 

yea he reproved kings for their sakes, 

saying: Touch not mine anointed ones, 

and do my prophets no harm!" Ps. 105: 8 — 15. 

CHAPTER XXL 

VrS. 1 7. SARAH IS AT LAST A MOTHER. (1896 B. C.) 

1 And Jehovah visited Sarah as he had said, and Jehovah did unto 
Sarah as he had spoken. 

2 And Sarah conceived, and bare Abraham a son in his old age, 
at the set time of which God had spoken to him. 

3 And Abraham called the name of his son that was born unto 
him, whom Sarah bare to him, Isaac. 

4 And Abraham circumcised his son Isaac when he was eight 
days old, as God had commanded him. 

5 And Abraham was a hundred years old, when his son Isaac 
was born unto him. 

6 And Sarah said, God hath made me to laugh; every one that 
heareth will laugh with me. 

7 And she said, Who would have -said unto Abraham that Sarah 
should give children suck? for I have borne him a son in his old age. 

The Angel-Jehovah had said to Abraham (ch. 18:10): "I 
will return unto thee when the season cometh round, and Sarah 
shall have a son." In this form, therefore, he returned to 
him at the appointed time; for in all the Scriptures the word 
"visit" or "come" is used to express any remarkable manifesta- 
tion of the kindness, or of the justice and wrath of God. Isaac 
(— Laughter, or, Lie shall laugh) was the name which God 
himself had given the child, when he made promise of his 
birth (ch. 17: 19) ; so Abraham called him Isaac, and circumcised 
him on the eighth day, fulfilling thus the law of Jehovah. 
Ch. 17: 12. Abraham at the time was a hundred years old. 



CHAPTER 21: 1—7 245 

Beautiful and very natural is the exclamation of the aged 
mother: "God hath made me to laugh, and every one that 
heareth will laugh with me! Who would have said to Abraham 
that Sarah should give suck? For I have borne him a son 
in his old age." Isaac was born in Gerar, or in the valley of 
Gerar, where Abraham dwelt a long time before going to Beer* 
sheba; the proof of which is found in the many wells which he 
digged there; for as Abraham seems never again to have lived in 
the valley of Gerar, this must have been the time when he dug 
them. See ch. 26: 15, 18. The repetition in vr. 1 that "Jehovah 
visited Sarah as he had said and Jehovah did unto Sarah as he 
had said," gives emphasis to the faithfulness of the God of Abra- 
ham in fulfilling his promises to his people who trust in him. 
The words of Paul on this particular case are worthy to be given 
here, and also on the certainty and security of all the promises of 
God to his children: "Who in hope believed against hope, to the 
end that he might become the father of many nations, according 
to that which had been spoken: So (as the stars) shall thy seed 
be. And being not weak in faith, he considered not his own body, 
now as good as dead (when he was about a hundred years old), 
neither yet the deadness of Sarah's womb; but looking unto the 
promise of God, he wavered not through unbelief, but waxed 
strong through faith, giving glory to God, and being fully assured 
that what he had promised he was able also to perform. Where- 
fore also it was reckoned to him for righteousness. Now it was 
not written for his sake alone that it was reckoned unto him; 
but for our sakes also, unto whom it shall be reckoned, who be- 
lieve on him who raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead; who 
was delivered up for our trespasses, and was raised again for our 
justification." Rom. 4: 18 — 25. 

We are often impatient because God does not at once fulfil 
some promise of his on which we have set our heart; but in this 
we do not "walk in the steps of the faith of our father Abra- 
ham." And it is not less certain in our case than it was in his, 
that God will fulfil every promise of his, in the way and at the 
time that shall be most for his glory and for our own advantage; 
and meantime, he is more glorified by our unwavering and im- 
perturbable faith, than by all our so-called good works. John 6: 
28, 29; 1 John 3: 23. 

"For the vision is yet for the appointed time, 
and it hasteth towards the end and shall not lie ^disap- 
point our hope) ; 
although it tarry, wait for it; 
because it will surely come, it will not delay." Hab. 2: 3. 



246 GENESIS 

21: 8 13. ISHMAEL MOCKS AT ISAAC. (1892 B. C.) 

8 And the child grew, and was weaned : and Abraham made a 
great feast on the day that Isaac was weaned. 

9 And Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, whom she had 
borne unto Abraham, mocking. 

10 Wherefore she said unto Abraham, Cast out this handmaid* 
and her son : for the son of this handmaid shall not be heir with my 
son, even with Isaac. 

11 And the thing was very grievous in Abraham's sight on account 
of his son. 

12 And God said unto Abraham, Let it not be grievous in thy 
sight because of the lad, and because of thy handmaid* ; in all that 
Sarah saith unto thee, hearken unto her voice ; for in Isaac shall thy 
seed be called. 

13 And also of the son of the handmaid will I make a nation, 
because he is thy seed. 

I* A. Y., bondwoman ; M. 8. V., slave.] 

In Oriental countries, it is customary for mothers to nurse their 
children for a longer time than they do with us, and wean them 
at a more advanced age. When Samuel was weaned, he was old 
enough to be carried to the house of Jehovah, in Shiloh, and be 
left there with Eli; where he remained "ministering to Jehovah 
before the high priest Eli." 1 Sam. 1: 22—25; 2: 11. In 2 Chron. 
31: 16, provision was made for the maintenance of the priests and 
Levites "from three years old and upward," and in the second 
(Apocryphal) book of the Maccabees (ch. 7: 27), the mother of 
the seven martyred sons, after witnessing the death of the six 
elder ones, plead with the youngest by all her maternal care, in- 
cluding "three years" that she had given him the breast, that he 
would not disappoint her hope, but would die like his brothers, 
and despise the flattering offers of Antiochus. From all which 
it is proper to infer that Isaac was three years old when Abra- 
ham made that great banquet in honor of the weaning of his son. 
The case of Leah was altogether exceptional, not only for those 
times, but for any other; for she, with her vehement desire to 
bear children and more children, had the satisfaction of giving 
to Jacob a son year after year for six consecutive years, and a 
daughter besides in the seventh; and all these before the birth of 
Joseph, who came at the time that Jacob had completed the first 
seven years of his married life. Ch. 30: 25. 

Up to this point Hagar and her Ishmael, the rivals of Sarah 
and her Isaac, had looked on and kept silence; but nettled with 
the great public rejoicings that were made over the heir of the 
promise, Ishmael in an evil hour for himself set about to mock 
at him. We do not know in what form or with what aggravating 
circumstances this was done; but the language of Paul in Gal. 
4: 29, that "he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that 
was born after the spirit," gives us to understand that it was a 



CHAPTER 21: 8—13 247 

depreciatory and malignant treatment, a bitter and satirical scorn, 
sufficient to constitute an exceedingly grave offence. There are 
unreflecting persons who would wish to treat the whole matter 
as if it belonged to the class of "childish things," and look upon 
the painful consequences which it brought upon Ishmael and his 
mother, as the vengeance of a jealous and passionate woman. 
But God approved the sentence, and this ought to banish such 
vulgar notions from the minds of those who fear him. This did 
not belong to the class of "childish things." Ishmael was four- 
teen years of age when Isaac was born, and at this time he was 
seventeen. He was more of a man than a child, and his conduct 
gave evidence of the growing rivalry and the profound hatred 
toward Isaac which was going to characterize the man. 

Notwithstanding this, it must be confessed that Sarah was not 
as amiable as she was beautiful. Called affectionately by Abra- 
ham "My Princess" (=Sarai), in her youth, and "Princess 
(—Sarah) by Jehovah, who gave her this name; indulged and 
petted from youth to old age, and naturally proud and high 
tempered (see ch. 16: 5) it was not possible for her any longer 
(for this was not an isolated case) to tolerate the impertinences 
of her slave, high spirited and independent by nature, and also 
her rival, as being the mother of the youth who for thirteen years 
had been considered as the only son and heir of Abraham — a 
rivalry which she was at no pains to dissemble. Comp. ch. 16: 
4, 5. The conduct of young Ishmael, therefore, was intolerable 
to Sarah; and it was probably instigated or countenanced by his 
mother. "Cast out (she said to Abraham) this slave (= bond- 
woman) and her son; for the son of this slave shall not be heir 
with my son, with Isaac!" Abraham had a tender love for 
Ishmael, whose natural endowments and his free, independent 
and indomitable spirit, like that of a wild ass (ch. 16: 12), con- 
trasted advantageously with the quiet, meek and somewhat in- 
dolent temper of Isaac — perhaps already visible in the child of 
three years; and so the demand which Sarah made "was very 
grievous in his sight." Abraham therefore hesitated to carry out 
the wish of his wife; but God said to him: "Let it not be 
grievous in thy sight because of the lad and because of thy bond- 
woman; in all that Sarah saith unto thee, hearken unto her voice; 
for in Isaac shall thy seed be called" — that is, the seed in the 
line of the covenanted promise. The fact that Abraham was 
willing to overlook such gross misbehaviour upon the part of 
Ishmael, which presaged so many troubles and vexations, if not 
clangers, in the bosom of his own family; and that, blinded by 
his love for the boy, he did not see the grave inconvenience of 



248 GENESIS 

having in his encampment a lusty youth, who so openly published 
his profound hatred towards the child that deprived him of the 
inheritance which for fourteen years he and his mother had 
learned to regard as his indisputable right, was additional rea- 
son why God should tell him to do in this matter according 
to the will of Sarah. 

The allegory of Sarah and Hagar, of Isaac and Ishmael, which 
Paul bases on this incident, it would be worth the reader's while 
to stop and read here (in Gal. 4: 22 — 31), as it is too long to 
quote. The passage would also be worth the serious consideration 
of those "liberal Christians" who affect to regard all decent forms 
of religion as more or less the same in their essence, and think it 
is better worth our while to find out and accentuate the excel- 
lencies of each, than to "preach the Gospel to every creature," as 
Christ has given us commandment; and who naturally enough 
hold that Christians may conform to the usages and the pleas- 
ures of the world, without losing the distinctive marks of being 
the Church of God. The hatred of those who are "born after the 
flesh" towards those who "are born after the Spirit," is as in- 
genuous and as deep now as was that of Hagar and her son 
towards Sarah and her son. This allegory of Paul's reminds us 
of the words "I will put enmity between thee and the woman, 
and between thy seed and her seed." Gen. 3: 15. It also explains 
the implacable hatred of the Romish Church toward the Gospel 
and all who profess the evangelical religion; — that Church which 
has constituted itself the legitimate successor of "the Jerusalem 
that is now," (in contradistinction from "the Jerusalem that is 
above"), which Paul represents under the figure of Hagar and her 
son, and says: "she is in bondage with her children." "But as 
then he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was 
born after the Spirit, even so it is now." Gal. 4: 25, 29. 

When God ordained the expulsion of Hagar and her son, he 
renewed with Abraham the promise of blessing the lad Ishmael, 
of caring for him, and making him a great nation, because he 
was Abraham's son; a promise which we have already considered 
at length, in the comment on ch. 17: 20. Thus it is that God 
blesses the children for their parents' sake. 

21: 14 — 21. HAGAR AND HER SON ARE CAST OUT. (1892 B. C.) 

14 And Abraham rose up early in the morning, and took bread 
and a bottle* of water, and gave it unto Hagar, putting it on her 
shoulder, and gave her the child, and sent her away : and she de- 
parted, and wandered in the wilderness of Beer-sheba. 

15 And the water in the bottle was spent, and she cast the child 
under one of the shrubs. 

*Or, skin. 



CHAPTER 21: 14—21 249 

16 And she went, and sat her down over against him a good way 
off, as it were a bowshot : for she said, Let me not look upon the death 
of the child. And she sat over against him, and lifted up her voice, 
and wept. 

17 And God heard the voice of the lad ; and the angel of God 
called to Hagar out of heaven, and said unto her, What aileth thee, 
Hagar? fear not; for God hath heard the voice of the lad where he is. 

. 18 Arise, lift up the lad, and hold him in thy hand ; for I will 
make him a great nation. 

19 And God opened her eyes, and she saw a well of water; and 
she went, and filled the bottle with water, and gave the lad drink. 

20 And God was with the lad, and he grew ; and he dwelt in the 
wilderness, and became, as he grew up, an archer. 

21 And he dwelt in the wilderness of Paran : and his mother took 
him a wife out of the land of Egypt. 

Habitually prompt to fulfil whatever his God ordained, on the 
following morning Abraham rose up early, and lading Hagar 
with "bread" (a word which in Hebrew signifies food in general), 
and with a water-skin — holding probably five or six gallons — ■ 
he gave her her son, who being almost a man, would be able to 
carry a part of the burden of his mother, and sent them away. 
The farewell seems to us to have been almost hard and unfeeling. 
But in a history as compendious as this, the love of Abraham 
for his boy will answer for it that it was not as much so as it 
looks. The Bible wastes no words in those delicate pencilings 
which form so essential a part of human compositions. Without 
doubt, he supplied them with everything that was necessary; 
as it appears by vr. 15 that the first and only thing that they 
lacked in the desert was water. There can be no doubt that 
Abraham followed the steps of the youth in whom he had cen- 
tered so many hopes, with the keenest interest. To suppose that 
he disinherited him is proof of much ignorance of the Bible and 
its usages, or of much and bitter prejudice. What more could 
Abraham do for them under the circumstances; or what would 
Ishmael and his mother do with worldly goods in the desert? We 
know for a certainty that in due time Abraham gave him the 
part of his fortune which was due him as one of his sons; for 
he had no other concubines but Hagar and Keturah; and ch. 
25: 5 tells us that "to the sons of the concubines, that Abraham 
had, he gave gifts; and he sent them away from Isaac his son 
while he yet lived, eastward, into the east country;" and we are 
told in ch. 25: 6, 9, that Ishmael took part with Isaac in the 
obsequies of his father Abraham; which could not have been, if 
his father had not treated him with the attentions which were 
his due, and had not honored him with worldly goods such as 
corresponded with his quality as his son, and first-born son. 

Beersheba and the city which afterwards grew up there, near to 



250 GENESIS 

its celebrated wells, lay to the S. E. of Gerar, at a distance of 
20 or 25 miles farther up the valley of the river, or winter 
torrent, which passed by Gerar; and as this at a later period 
was almost the southern limit of Canaan — as is indicated in the 
current phrase "from Dan to Beersheba" (Judg. 20: 1), which 
indicated the extreme length of the country from north to south- 
it is probable that "the desert of Beersheba" began at this point, 
and extended all the way to "the desert of Shur," on the S. W., 
and to "the desert of Paran" on the south. On the former oc- 
casion (ch. 16: 7) she took the road to Shur, going from Hebron 
(28 miles N. E. from Beersheba) towards Egypt, her native 
country; but this time she turned south, or S. E., since the 
young Ishmael was fond of desert life, and came in fact to 
fix his wide abode, as a nomad, in the desert of Paran, — far to 
the south. The Well of "the Living-One-who-seetti-me" (=Beer- 
lahai-roi) was not far distant from the place then called Beersheba 
(ch. 24: 62); and it is in itself probable that when the banished 
ones directed their steps from Gerar to the S. E., towards "the 
desert of Beersheba," Hagar went wandering about those soli- 
tudes in search of that well, the place where she had had that 
first interview with the Angel-Jehovah, which would bring so 
grateful recollections to her mind in this time of even greater 
need. As the two went wandering and lost about the desert of 
Beersheba, the water was spent in their skin-bottle; and when 
young Ishmael could no longer endure the thirst, "she cast him 
under one of the shrubs, and sat over against, or in front of him, 
at the distance of a bowshot, saying: "Let me not look upon the 
death of the child!" "And she lifted up her voice and wept." 
Very moving is this picture, which the Bible, and the Bible alone, 
can paint to us so vividly and so completely in so few words. 

On the former occasion, it is supposable and probable, that the 
poor Egyptian, fleeing from the hard hand of her mistress, called 
for help to the God of her master Abraham, the father of her 
unborn child; for the angel told her to call the child "Ishmael 
(—God hears); because Jehovah hath heard (the voice of) thy 
affliction." Ch. 16: 11. On this occasion, the affliction of the 
mother was much greater; but nothing of the kind is told us. 
Naturally high spirited, bitter of soul, and full of resentment for 
what had happened, it is supposable that the gods of Egypt, her 
native country, would have for her more attraction than the 
God of Abraham. It is at least noticeable that although she 
wept and sobbed out her keen distress, and presents herself to 
our view as the most moving figure in the picture, the text says 
to us "that God heard the voice of the lad"; and the Angel- 



CHAPTER 21: 14—21 251 

Jehovah, calling to her out of heaven, said to the weeping mother : 
"What aileth thee Hagar? Fear not, for God hath heard the 
voice of the lad where he is" Ishmael was, at the time, seven- 
teen years old. He was old enough to know his need; and in his 
great strait it is probable that he, who knew no other God, nor 
gods, but Jehovah the God of his father Abraham, laid aside his 
resentment, and cried to God almost with his last breath. It is 
also worthy of attention that when the Angel opened the eyes of 
Hagar to see the well of water, she did not give either to the well, 
or to the Angel, as on the former occasion, a name of grateful 
remembrance; although her necessity was greater, and more op- 
portune the relief. 

However this may be, the Angel tranquillized and consoled her 
with the assurance that God had heard the voice of the lad; and 
he commanded her: "Arise, lift up the lad and hold him in thy 
hand! For I will make of him a great nation." He then opened 
her eyes to see the well of water, the same perhaps which she 
had been seeking in vain, on account of the anguish of her 
spirit, and blinded with her tears. It would seem that even 
when she lifted him up, the lad was unable to walk; because the 
mother "went, and filled the skin with water, and gave the lad 
drink." 

We know little of the subsequent life of Ishmael, except what 
we read in ch. 25: 9, 12 — 18. I cannot anywhere discover whether 
this divine interposition softened the heart of the mother, or 
worked for the spiritual profit of her son. It is probable that 
they abandoned the religion of Abraham together with his en- 
campment; because the words "God was with the lad, and he 
grew," etc., do not indicate more than the faithful performance of 
the promise given to Abraham, to bless him because he was his 
son, and to make him a great nation. He grew up in the deserts 
and became an expert archer, dexterous in the use of the bow.. 
a great hunter, and a valiant warrior, "his hand against every 
man, and every man's hand against him." The desert of Paran, 
where he came to dwell, embraced all the central part of the 
peninsula of Mount Sinai. His mother took him a wife out of 
Egypt, her own country; and with this he was more than ever 
separated from the altar, and from the family and usages of 
his father. Seventy-two years afterwards, when an old man of 
89 (he died at 137), he took part with Isaac in the burial of his 
father, accompanied doubtless by his fierce Arabs of the desert, 
to return immediately to the predatory life, which his descendants, 
the Bedouins of the desert, have followed till today. The Ish- 
maelites, scattered through the deserts, from Havilah (near the 



252 GENESIS 

mouth of the river Euphrates) "unto Shur, before Egypt" (ch. 
25: 18), did not preserve a trace of the religion of Abraham, 
except the rite of circumcision; and they continued completely 
pagan, until 600 years after Christ, when the great descendant of 
Ishmael, Mohammed, converted them to Islam, by the argument of 
the sword; and since then their motto has been, "There is no God 
but God, and Mohammed is his Prophet!" "Mohammed first, and 
after him the Son of Mary!" Thus ended Sarah's human ex- 
pedient to give fulfilment to the promises of God! Ch. 16: 1 — 3. 
This history of Hagar and her son makes clearly evident that 
Abraham, the believing man, the friend of God, had, like the rest 
of us, his errors, his bitter undeceivings, his domestic troubles 
and his poignant griefs which cost him dark days and sleepless 
nights; and it teaches us that we shall in vain hope to travel the 
way of our mortal pilgrimage without much suffering, due to our 
own errors and sins, and those of others. The important thing is, 
therefore, that, trusting in God and in his promises, we perform 
as far as possible our allotted duties and make full use of our 
privileges, "exercising ourselves herein to have always a con- 
science without offence toward God and toward men." Acts 24: 
16. As it is impossible to avoid difficulties and sorrows, which 
are an essential part of our spiritual education, let us enjoy at 
least the delights of a good conscience. "In the world (said 
Jesus) ye shall have tribulation; but be of good cheer; I have 
overcome the world." John 16: 33. 

21: 22 — 34. abimelech makes a covenant of peace with 
abraham. beersheba. (1891 b. c.) 

22 And it came to pass at that time, that Abimelech and Phicol 
the captain of his host spake unto Abraham, saying, God is with thee 
in all that thou doest : 

23 now therefore swear unto me here by God that thou wilt not 
deal falsely with me, nor with my son, nor with my son's son : but 
according to the kindness that I have done unto thee, thou shalt do 
unto me, and to the land wherein thou hast sojourned. 

24 And Abraham said, I will swear. 

25 And Abraham reproved Abimelech because of the well of 
water, which Abimelech's servants had violently taken away. 

26 And Abimelech said, I know not who hath done this thing : 
neither didst thou tell me, neither yet heard I of it, but to-day. 

27 And Abraham took sheep and oxen, and gave them unto Abim- 
elech ; and they two made a covenant. 

28 And Abraham set seven ewe lambs of the flock by themselves. 

29 And Abimelech said unto Abraham, What mean these seven 
ewe lambs which thou hast set by themselves? 

30 And he said, These seven ewe lambs shalt thou take of my 
hand, that it may be a witness unto me, that I have digged this well. 

31 Wherefore he called that place Beer-sheba ; because there they 
sware both of them. 

32 So they made a covenant at Beer-sheba: and Abimelech rose 



CHAPTER 21: 22—34 253 

up, and Phicol the captain of his host, and they returned into the 
land of the Philistines. 

33 And Abraham planted a tamarisk tree* in Beer-sheba, and 
called there on the name of Jehovah, the Everlasting God. 

34 And Abraham sojourned in the land of the Philistines many 
days. 

[*A. V. and M. 8. Y., a grove.] 

"At that time," in vr. 22, refers either to the marriage of Ish- 
mael, mentioned in the preceding verse, or more naturally to what 
is related in the preceding paragraph, as having occurred in the 
valley of Gerar; where, in coming years, Isaac passed much time, 
opening again the wells dug by his father (which the Philis- 
tines, after Abraham's death, had filled with earth, on account 
of the ill-will they had to Isaac), and digging himself three new 
wells, before he put himself in safety from that envious crew, by 
going to Beersheba. Ch. 26: 12 — 23. These brief notices make it 
evident that Isaac was born near to Gerar, and that Abraham 
passed much time in "the valley of Gerar," before he went to 
dwell in "the valley of Beersheba," which is no more than the 
extension of the former, upon the same river or winter torrent. 
What is related in this paragraph took place in Beersheba, as we 
are expressly told in vr. 31; which was not the "land of the Phil- 
istines," as is implied, if not stated, in vr. 32; and this makes it 
extremely difficult to explain satisfactorily vr. 34; which, in con- 
tinuation of the foregoing, says that Abraham passed much time 
in the land of the Philistines. It would be very easy to translate 
it "had passed many days in the land of the Philistines," and so 
avoid the difficulty, were it not that it appears to allude to the 
grove which Abraham planted in Beersheba, and where he passed 
at least forty years, except the little time that he was in 
Hebron, where Sarah died and was buried. Ch. 23. In Beersheba 
Isaac was married, and there probably Abraham passed his old 
age; although he also was buried in the cave of Macphelah, near 
to Hebron. 

A satisfactory solution of the difficulty may perhaps be found 
in the supposition that in a wide sense the pastures of Beersheba 
were regarded as lands annexed to the kingdom of Abimelech, 
being only 20 or 25 miles distant from Gerar; the herdsmen of 
Gerar going as far as that, or farther, for the pasturage of their 
cattle, and where by brute force they took away from Abraham 
this same well of Beersheba, under the pretext doubtless that 
the waters were theirs; just as they did with the herdsmen 
of Isaac after the death of his father. Ch. 26: 20, 21. On the 
other hand, when it is said in vr. 32 that after making a covenant 
with Abraham in Beersheba, Abimelech and Picol, the captain of 



254 GENESIS 

his army, "returned to the land of the Philistines," it is easy to 
understand that what is meant is that they returned from those 
unoccupied pasture-lands to Gerar, and to the inhabited part of 
his kingdom. 

At that time, therefore, and after the departure of Hagar and 
her son Ishmael, and when Abraham had moved his encampment 
up the valley, until he arrived at the place afterwards called 
Beersheba, and had digged there the famous well which gave 
name to the city that in coming years grew up near to it, 
Abimelech and Picol made him a visit, in order to secure by 
covenant an enduring basis of peace with him. The motive, — 
it is not easy to penetrate the motives of the Orientals; but the 
occasion might well have been the disagreement about that well, 
which the servants of Abimelech had violently taken away from 
Abraham, although Abimelech protested his entire ignorance of 
it; for it is the universal testimony of travelers that the Orientals 
lie without scruple, unless an oath is required of them; — 
something which they horribly fear. Near to the north bank 
of the wide and dry torrent-bed or "waddy," Dr. Robinson says 
that he found two very aged wells with an abundance of water 
and of the best quality, about 300 yards apart; of these "the 
larger one (which he says may well have been the one which 
Abraham dug) measures 12% feet in width, and 44% feet in 
depth, down to the surface of the water; of which 16 feet was 
cut in the solid rock." Researches, Vol. I, pp. 300, 301. If this 
be the well which they took away from him, it is not strange that 
Abraham should complain of the injustice done him. So then 
Abimelech came a distance of 20 or 25 miles, with some troops 
doubtless (as he brought with him the captain of his army), to 
celebrate a lasting covenant of peace with this great prince 
Abraham, whose friendship might be worth much to him, and 
whose enmity might cause him serious harm. Abimelech asked 
a solemn oath of Abraham. Abraham readily granted the oath 
that was asked, and he took occasion from so favorable a junc- 
ture to reprove Abimelech about the well which the servants or 
herdsmen of Abimelech had taken from him; this friend of God 
having suffered the trampling upon his rights rather than resist 
by force, which he might well have done. On similar occasions, 
Isaac dug other wells, when the herdsmen of Gerar "filled with 
earth all the wells his father had dug," and took from him 
successively two other wells which he himself had dug. Ch. 26: 
15. And it is at least possible that when they took away from 
Abraham the first, he dug the second well which still is found in 
that place, 300 yards distant from the other. 



CHAPTER 21: 22—34 255 

It is not easy to understand why Abraham, the aggrieved 
party, should take sheep and cattle and give them to Abimelech, 
the offending party, unless it be explained by the words which 
follow: "and they two made (Heb. cut) a covenant." The 
phrase appropriated to making covenants in Hebrew is "to cut a 
covenant"; which probably took its origin from the ceremony 
minutely described in ch. 15: 9 — 17; and, in this case, to give 
greater force and validity to the covenant, it would seem that 
Abraham gave the animals to Abimelech, that he might make the 
customary sacrifices and cut in twain the victims, between the 
divided parts of which the contracting parties were to pass. See 
the ceremony described in ch. 15: 6 — 18. From this circum- 
stance the place took its name, "Beer-sheba" (z="Well of the 
oath"); a name, which in its Arabic form continues till today; 
and near to such abundant and good waters was slowly built the 
well-known city of that name, in those days when such a well of 
water was enough for a whole city. Ch. 24: 11; 28: 2, 3; John 4: 
6 — 12. Then, in order to confirm the solemn transaction with 
greater abundance of proof, Abraham took seven ewe lambs of the 
flock and set them by themselves; an action which Abimelech 
did not understand; and on asking what it meant, Abraham re- 
plied that Abimelech must take them from his hand and keep 
them, as a testimonal that he, Abraham, was the owner of that 
well in Beersheba, and that he had dug it. When these cere- 
monies were concluded, which were of great importance in those 
times, Abimelech and Picol and their attendants "returned to the 
land of the Philistines." 

There in Beersheba Abraham planted a grove, and in that 
locality he remained for many years. There he was living when 
he made the sacrifice of Isaac (ch. 22: 19); there he was living 
when Isaac married (ch. 24: 62); and it is probable that (with 
occasional visits to Hebron, the place of his sepulchre and that 
of his wife) there he passed the evening of his long life; enjoying 
the grateful shade of his grove, and the tranquillity which com- 
ported with the nobility and grandeur of his character. With 
regard to this "grove" there is some difference of opinion. The 
Revised English Version says that he planted a "tamarisk tree." 
But as the tamarisk is scarcely more than a shrub, according to 
the Standard Dictionary and the Diccionario Castellano of the 
Academy (or if it is the same thing as the Spanish "taray," it is, 
according to the same authority, but "a small tree which grows 
up in low coppices"), we cannot comprehend how this was a cir- 
cumstance worthy of record, or of what utility even a grove of 
tamarisks could be to Abraham and his encampment. There 



256 GENESIS 

exists a great deal of uncertainty with regard to the -flora and 
fauna (= plants and animals) of the Bible, and whatever may 
have been the kind of tree, "a grove," as used in the A. V. 
comes to supply us with a comprehensive term which is suitable 
to them all. There, then, in this grove, and under its grateful 
shade, Abraham placed his altar, and there "he invoked the name 
of Jehovah, the Eternal (or Everlasting) God." 

We have here another new name of the true God, who was re- 
vealing himself in a world which had willingly forgotten him — 
"Jehovah, the Eternal God." In ch. 14, Melchisedec blessed Abra- 
ham in the name of "God Most High, possessor of the heavens and 
the earth"; but that there might remain no room for doubt as to 
who he was, Abraham said to the king of Sodom: "I have lifted 
up my hand unto Jehovah, the Most High God, possessor of the 
heavens and the earth." In this place he invoked him under the 
name of "Jehovah, the Eternal God." Clear proofs are these that 
the name "Jehovah" was in use in the days of Abraham; what- 
ever "the critics" may have to say about it. See comments on 
ch. 10: 9; Ex. 3: 13, 14; and 6: 2, 3. 

CHAPTER XXII. 

VRS. 1 14. ABRAHAM, IN THE LAST AND GREAT TRIAL OF HIS FAITH, 

OFFERS UP IN SACRIFICE HIS SON, THAT IS TO SAY, HE WAS ABOUT 

to do it. See Heb. 11: 17. (1872 b. c.) 

1 And it came to pass after these things, that God did prove 
Abraham, and said unto him, Abraham ; and he said, Here am I. 

2 And he said, Take now thy son, thine only son, whom thou 
lovest, even Isaac, and get thee into the lnnd of Moriah ; and offer 
him there for a burnt-offering upon one of the mountains which I will 
tell thee of. 

3 And Abraham rose early in the morning, and saddled his ass, 
and took two of his young men with him, and Isaac his son ; and 
he clave the wood for the burnt-offering, and rose up, and went unto 
the place of which God had told him. 

4 On the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes, and saw the place 
afar off. 

5 And Abraham said unto his young men, Abide ye here with the 
ass, and I and the lad will go yonder ; and we will worship, and come 
again to you. 

6 And Abraham took the wood of the burnt-offering, and laid it 
upon Isaac his son ; and he took in his hand the fire and the knife ; 
and they went both of them together. 

7 And Isaac spake unto Abraham his father, and said, My father : 
and he said, Here am I, my son. And he said, Behold, the fire and 
the wood: but where is the lamb for a burnt offering? 

8 And Abraham said, God will provide himself the lamb for a 
burnt-offering, my son : so they went both of them together. 

9 And they came to the place which God had told him of; and 
Abraham built the altar there, and laid the wood in order, and bound 
Isaac his son, and laid him on the altar, upon the wood. 



CHAPTER 22: 1—14 257 

10 And Abraham stretched forth his hand, and took the knife 
to slay his son. 

11 And the angel of Jehovah called unto him out of heaven, and 
said, Abraham, Abraham ; and he said, Here am I. 

12 And he said, Lay not thy hand upon the lad, neither do thou 
anything unto him ; for now I know that thou fearest God, seeing 
thou has not withheld thy son, thine only son, from me. 

13 And Abraham lifted up his eyes, and looked, and, behold, 
behind him a ram caught in the thicket by his horns ; and Abraham 
went and took the ram, and offered him up for a burnt-offering in the 
stead of his son. 

14 And Abraham called the name of that place Jehovah-jireh :* 
as it is said to this day, In the mount of Jehovah it shall be 
provided. 

*That is, Jehovah will see, or provide. 

Another trial awaited "the father of all them that believe." 
Rom. 4: 11. Abraham had, like all men, his weaknesses and his 
sins, as we have already seen; he had therefore no righteousness 
of his own in which to trust; nor in respect of good works and 
perfection of life, did he excel many other servants of God. In 
what he did excel was in that which had to do with his faith 
in that God who had called him to himself from the idolatries of 
his native land and of his family, that in him and in his seed all 
the families of the earth might be blessed. This was his dis- 
tinguishing trait, his super-excellent glory; and for that very 
reason, God proved and refined his faith. Human virtues are 
cheap enough, when contrasted with the faith of those who are 
truly the people of God. It is absolutely necessary that we insist 
forever on this, with those who (despising the gospel light, 
which has made them what they are), go seeking human virtues 
and good works, and moral sentences among the philosophers of 
the gentile world, and among those decent people at home who 
reject the Bible and make light of the claims of Jesus Christ; 
in order to set them in invidious comparison with the gospel of 
the grace of God. With God, of what worth are all the boasted 
good works and beautiful natural endowments of those who re- 
ject with disdain his Son, and who refuse to believe in his re- 
vealed will, or who even deny his existence? Faith, therefore (not 
insistence in the opinions and teachings of men, nor in the beliefs 
and practices of one's forefathers, nor in the doctrines of one's 
church, sect or party; nor still less, a stubborn adhesion to 
one's own way of thinking; but the intelligent and cordial accept- 
ance of the testimony which God, by supernatural revelation, has 
given us of himself, and of his will and ways) — faith, thus un- 
derstood, is of all things in this apostate world the most precious, 
and is the root of all human virtues which have any real value 
with God. Because "without faith it is impossible to please him; 



258 GENESIS 

for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is 
a rewarder of them that diligently seek him." Heb. 11: 6. 

Peter says that "the trial of our faith is much more precious 
( = estimable, important), than that of gold, which though 
perishable is tried (Gr. gold which perisheth, but is tried) by 
means of fire." 1 Pet. 1:7. If the trial of our faith is so 
precious, how much more in the case of Abraham, the father 
and pattern of those who from then till now, have believed in 
God unto the saving of the soul! Heb. 10: 39. 

It is not necessary nor convenient for us to enter into the de- 
tails of this most beautiful story, which is clear enough of itself; 
so that explanations and amplifications cannot do less than de- 
tract from its perfection. But I will cite what the apostle says 
about it, in Hebrews 11: 17 — 19: "By faith Abraham, when he 
was tried, offered up Isaac, and he that had received the promises 
offered up (R. V. was offering up) his only begotten son, of 
whom it was said; In Isaac shall thy seed be called: accounting 
that God was able to raise him up even from the dead; from 
whence also he received him in a figure." 

It will be opportune to call the attention of my readers to cer- 
tain points in this precious story which ought not to be passed by 
unobserved. 

1st. The promptness of the faith and obedience of Abraham 
to fulfil whatever his God ordained: "He rose up early" to do it; 
and it would seem that without communicating his secret to any- 
body, he started out on its performance. 

2nd. He left nothing to chance: with thoughtful care he made 
all his preparations beforehand; and for fear that dry wood 
might be lacking in the locality, he cut and split it at once, lading 
it upon the ass, which he carried for this special purpose. In 
the midst of the careful preparations which he was making, 
Isaac may have noted with surprise that his father did not take 
with him a lamb of the many which he had in his folds; but 
he kept silent until, as they were going up together the mount of 
sacrifice, he addressed to his father that question (vr. 7), which 
must have broken his heart to pieces. 

3rd. The locality is of great significance. In 2 Chron. 3: 1 we 
are informed that Solomon built a Temple to Jehovah "on Mount 
Moriah." Beersheba, where at the time they were living (vr. 
19), was 25 miles from Hebron, and Hebron was 20 miles from 
Jerusalem; making 45 miles between Beersheba and Mount 
Moriah, where the Temple was built, as the exclusive place for 
offering sacrifices and burning incense before Jehovah, the God 
of all the earth. These 45 miles are in strict agreement with the 



CHAPTER 22: 1—14 259 

note of distance that we have in vr. 4, that "on the third day 9 
Abraham lifted up his eyes and saw the place afar off," but near 
enough for him to leave the beast of burden and the two young 
men there, and set out for the place of sacrifice they two alone, 
Isaac carrying the wood; as 1900 years after, Jesus also carried 
his cross, going to the same locality. Some of the Jews, who 
naturally would desire to avoid this coincidence, place the site 
of this transaction in Bethel — 12 miles to the north of Jerusalem; 
but, although "the land of Moriah" may possibly have extended 
12 miles farther to the north, 57 miles is quite too far to have 
gone there and fulfilled that work of faith "on the third day." 
For those who believe in a divine revelation, and in the particular 
providence of God, the circumstance that no other mention of 
"Moriah" except these two is found in all the Bible, and that the 
site of the Temple of Solomon corresponds well with the note of 
distance which Genesis gives us, will be enough to prove satisfac- 
torily that the all-wise God who ordained that "upon one of the 
mountains of the land of Moriah" Abraham should make the 
great sacrifice, would ordain likewise that this should be the 
very spot where the Eternal Father 1900 years afterwards was 
to offer his great sacrifice — that of his only begotten Son — for the 
sins of his believing people, the spiritual children of this same 
Abraham. 

4th. The author of the Epistle to the Hebrews fixes our at- 
tention upon the fact that he who offered this sacrifice "was he 
that had received the promises," and the victim of the sacrifice 
was "his only begotten son," for whose advent he had waited 25 
years, and in whom the promises given were to have their ful- 
filment. There we see the resplendent glory of this faith of 
Abraham, that he did not hesitate on this account, nor ask his 
God if he had forgotten his promises; nor require of him any 
explanation of how he was going to fulfil them, if Isaac was to 
perish under the sacrificial knife, and his body be reduced to 
ashes on the altar; but without entering on inquiries, nor asking 
explanations of any sort, he was about to crown his faith with 
the corresponding work, "considering that even from among the 
dead God was able to raise him up; from whence also he re- 
ceived him in a figure." Thus ought faith to work in us, that 
God may be glorified in us. 

5th. We indignantly reject the suggestion of some of the 

"critics," that, as it was then common in that country to offer 

human sacrifices, God wished to prove whether his servant 

^Fifteen miles a day is still the usual rate of travel in mountain coun- 
tries like the Andes. — Tr. 



260 GENESIS 

Abraham had the valor and firmness to make for him as costly a 
sacrifice, as the zealous pagans offered to their gods of wood and 
stone and brass. See Geike's Hours with the Bible. So a 
Canaanite contemporary of Abraham might regard it, but not a 
Christian who uses his Bible as he ought. In reference to the 
difficulty of an opposite character, which infidels raise, that it is 
^'a barbarity" even to think that God should command Abraham 
to offer such a sacrifice, it will be sufficient to say, that as they 
deny that "God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten 
Son" as a sacrifice for the sins of the world, they are simply 
consistent in denying that he should command Abraham to offer 
such a sacrifice (which he was going to prevent before it was 
carried into execution) ; thus shadowing forth that other sacrifice 
which 1900 years afterwards was to be carried into effect in the 
same locality. If they would accept the testimony of the word 
of God in the one part, they would find no difficulties in the 
other. If it was no crime for God, by the hands of wicked men, 
to bring about the sacrifice of his own Son for us, neither was it 
a crime, nor "a barbarity," that he should command Abraham to 
prefigure all that in his own family. 

6th. Four words, or phrases, here call our attention: 1. 
"Take in thy hand the fire," seems to indicate that the use of the 
flint and steel was not at that time known. 2. "The lad" (M. 
S. V., young man). The general use of the word "lad" in the 
different Versions has given rise to the idea that Isaac was at that 
time about fifteen years old. On the contrary, he was about 
twenty five, according to the common chronology; and the word 
"young man" better expresses the idea of the Hebrew, which 
three times in this chapter uses the very same word in speaking 
of the "young men" whom Abraham brought with him as servants, 
Vrs. 8, 5, 19. It is likewise the same word which Abraham uses 
in reference to his soldiers, in ch. 14: 24. Isaac was man enough 
to carry up the hill, or mountain side, the wood of sacrifice, 
which up to that point had been carried by the ass, and therefore 
he was fully able to resist his father, if he himself had not con- 
sented to the sacrifice which God demanded. This was as 
illustrious an act of obedience on his part as on the part of his 
father, and reminds us of the case of Him who said of his life: 
"No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have 
power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. 
This commandment have I received of my father:" John 10: 18. 
And in the matter of Isaac's carrying the wood of his own sacri- 
fice, we see at once the likeness to Jesus, who went forth to the 
place of his great sacrifice "bearing his cross." 3. So also the 



CHAPTER 22: 15—19 261 

words "Now I know that thou f earest God." As a matter of simple, 
intuitive knowledge, God knew it before; but, humanly speaking, he 
had then positive proof and experience of it. To the same effect 
Jesus said in the passage already quoted: "Therefore doth my 
Father love me [— this constituted a new, peculiar and pre-emi- 
nent ground of the Divine complacency], because I lay down my 
life that I might take it again. No man taketh it from me," etc. 
John 10: 17, 18. Here, as in all the Bible, "the fear of God" is 
put for practical religion and true piety. 4. In this history, Je- 
hovah calls Isaac "thy son, thine only son;" and the apostle in 
Hebrews 11: 17 speaks of him as his "only begotten son.". Isaac 
was his "only son" by his own proper wife; and it was usual to 
make that distinction in such cases. Jacob, led into polygamy 
against his will, never recognized any one except Rachel as his 
proper wife, and her sons he always regarded as different from 
the rest. See ch. 44: 27— 29; 48: 6, 7, 22. "Only begotten son" 
he was also in a certain sense, inasmuch as he was the only one of 
the promise, and in case of his death there was none of the 
other sons who could fill his place; resurrection from the dead, 
as the apostle intimates, alone would have sufficed in such a 
case. 

22: 15 — 19. god eenews to Abraham the great promise. 
(1872 b. c.) 

15 And the angel of Jehovah called unto Abraham a second time 
out of heaven, 

16 and said, By myself have I sworn, saith Jehovah, because thou 
hast done this thing, and hast not withheld thy son, thine only son, 

17 that in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will 
multiply thy seed as the stars of the heavens, and as the sand which 
is upon the sea-shore ; and thy seed shall possess the gate of his 
enemies ; 

18 and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed ; 
because thou hast obeyed my voice. 

19 So Abraham returned unto his young men, and they rose up 
and went together to Beer-sheba ; and Abraham dwelt at Beer- 
eheba. 

The divine person who intervened in this matter is twice called 
"the Angel of Jehovah" (vrs. 11, 15) and both times it is said 
that he spoke "out of heaven" — in Hebrew "heaven" and "the 
heavens" are the same thing. Revelations in different forms 
Abraham had had, but this is the first time that he was spoken 
to out of the heavens; — according to the information given us 
in this book. Thus spoke the same divine person, with the same 
name, to Hagar, the second time that he spoke with her; that is 
to say, "out of the heavens." Ch. 21: 17. The proof that it was 
really Jehovah who thus spoke, is seen in vrs. 12 and 16; and 



262 GENESIS 

is more amply set forth in Note 22 (page 187) "on the Angel of 
Jehovah." For this reason in the Modern Spanish Version the 
word "Angel" in these passages is printed with a capital letter. 
It will be sufficient to observe here that in vr. 12, this Angel 
says to Abraham: "Put not forth thy hand against the young 
man, nor do anything to him; for now I know that thou fearest 
God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son, 
from me." For the second time the Angel cried to Abraham out 
of heaven, and this time he speaks plainly under the name of 
Jehovah, saying: "By myself I have sworn, saith Jehovah, be- 
cause thou hast done this, and hast not withheld thy son," etc.; 
and then he expressly repeats the covenanted blessings promised 
to his posterity and to all the nations of the earth. To the bless- 
ings already promised, he adds now: "And thy seed shall possess 
the gate of their enemies"; which is a promise of having and 
maintaining the dominion over them. As the gate of ancient 
cities was the strongest part of the wall and the most stoutly 
defended, and as it was the principal place of concourse for the 
people, where public affairs were transacted, and justice was ad- 
ministered, "to possess the gate" of a city was really to possess 
the city itself with all its interests and concerns. 

The motive and reason for this renewal or repetition of the 
great promise at this juncture was, as God said, "because thou 
hast done this, and hast not withheld thy son, thine only son 
from me." To this illustrious act of faith God doubtless referred, 
when, on confirming the sworn covenant in the hands of Isaac, 
he said that he would do that which he had sworn to Abraham, 
"because Abraham obeyed my voice, and kept my charge, my 
commandments, my statutes and my laws." Ch. 26: 5. There can 
be no doubt that this particular act of faith and obedience was 
of inestimable value with God. It reminds us of those words 
already cited, and worthy of repetition, so like to these in form 
and spirit: "Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay 
down my life that I might take it again. No man taketh it from 
me, but I lay it down of myself; I have power to lay it down and 
I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received 
of my father." John 10: 17, 18. Jesus did not do this of his own 
motion (any more than did Abraham), but in obedience to a 
commandment. And Paul says that it was because of his "obedi- 
ence unto death and the death of the cross," that "God hath 
highly exalted him, and given him a name that is above every 
name." Phil. 2: 8, 9. And although these works and voluntary 
sufferings of Christ, done on our behalf, in obedience to the will 
of God, had an infinite value, while those of Abraham had none 



CHAPTER 22: 15—19 263 

whatever as a basis of confidence in himself, or a means of ob- 
taining a justifying righteousness with God, it should never be 
doubted nor forgotten that, as regards their value and estima- 
tion with God, this act of faith and obedience of Abraham 
.possessed it in the highest degree. We should never allow our 
protest against the false and pernicious Romish doctrine of the 
merits of good works to obtain remission of sins and eternal life, 
to obscure in the slightest degree the Bible doctrine of the in- 
estimable value which his people's heroic acts of faith, and 
their humble, sincere and spontaneous obedience to his revealed 
will, have with God. Let us be intelligent and self-consistent in 
this: "All our righteousnesses are as filthy rags" (Isa. 64: 6), 
when regarded as a ground of merit before God, and as the basis 
of justification and peace with him; but as the fruit of our faith 
and obedience, he esteems them of great price, and will most 
munificently reward them all; so that even a cup of cold water, 
given in the name of a disciple "shall in no wise lose its reward," 
as Jesus himself says. Matt. 19: 29. Comp. 1 Peter 3: 4. 

To the same effect says the Holy Spirit in Heb. 13: 16: "But 
to do good and to communicate forget not; for with such sacri- 
fices God is well pleased." Moses celebrates the work of Abra- 
ham, and Paul his faith, of which his work was the legitimate 
and indispensable fruit. His faith without the corresponding 
work would have been a lie; his work without his faith — that is 
to say without being founded on the word and commandment of 
God — would have been a crime. The virtue of it all consisted in the 
fact that he acted in obedience to what God had commanded him 
to do. Without this, it would have been in no respect better than 
the corresponding act of the pagan Canaanites, and of Israelitish 
idolaters, in whom it was regarded and held as the most 
aggravated form of their numerous abominations, that they of- 
fered their own sons and daughters in sacrifice to their idols. 
Deut. 12: 31; 18: 10; Ps. 106: 37, 38; Jer. 19: 5. 

No such sacrifice is demanded of us as this of Abraham; but if 
Christian parents withhold their children from God, when he 
calls them to the missionary work, or to any other difficult or 
painful enterprise of his, or if they rebel against his manifest 
will, when he takes them away by the hand of death, it is a sad 
proof that they know little or nothing of the obedience of Abra- 
ham, or of the blessing that accompanied it: "Because thou hast 
not withheld thy son, thine only son, from me" 

When this sacrifice was finished, which God regarded as an 
accomplished work (Heb. 11: 17), in view of the undivided pur- 
pose with which his servant undertook to excute what was com- 



264 GENESIS 

manded, Abraham and Isaac returned to their young men, who 
waited with the ass at the foot of the mount, and setting out on 
their journey, they returned to Beersheba; and there they abode 
for many years. 

22: 20 — 24. Abraham receives tidings from the family of his 
brother nahor. (1872 (?) b. c.) 

20 And it came to pass after these things, that it was told Abra- 
ham, saying, Behold, Milcah, she also hath borne children unto thy 
brother Nahor : 

21 Uz his first-born, and Buz his brother, and Kemuel the father 
of Aram, 

22 and Chesed, and Hazo, and Pildash, and Jidlaph, and Bethuel. 

23 And Bethuel begat Rebekah ; these eight did Milcah bear to 
Nahor, Abraham's brother. 

24 And his concubine, whose name was Reumah, she also bare 
Tebah, and Gaham, and Tahash, and Maacah. 

Some time after what is related in the preceding paragraph, 
Abraham received this intelligence from his brother's family. 
The common chronology, given in our Bibles, reckons that this 
occurred the same year. The commentator Adam Clarke sup- 
poses that it happened ten years later: it would be as easy to sup- 
pose that it was twelve or fourteen. If we conjecture that Isaac 
was twenty five years old at the time of the sacrifice which was 
not carried into effect, there would remain fifteen years until the 
time of his marriage with Rebekah; because he was forty years 
old at that time (ch. 25: 20); but as it is certain that these 
tidings had to do with that marriage, and are mentioned here for 
that reason, fifteen years seems to us an unreasonable interval. 

It would seem that in those times little intelligence passed 
between the separated members of the same family. The dis- 
tance was about 500 miles in a direct line between Beersheba and 
Haran, the city of Nahor; and when Jacob passed twenty years 
there, it does not appear that in all that time he had tidings from 
the family of his father Isaac. It is probable that Abraham had 
not had tidings from his brother in many years, when there 
came to him this opportune intelligence with reference to the 
number and even the names of the children of his brother Nahor; 
twelve in all, together with one grandson, and one granddaughter, 
Rebekah, the daughter of Bethuel, who later became the wife of 
Isaac. Such information would be interesting in itself, but as 
Rebekah is expressly, mentioned, and by name, it is to be sup- 
posed that it is given here, after the escape of Isaac from a 
sacrificial death, as a prelude to the embassy in search of a wife 
for Isaac, which occupies the whole of chapter 24. 



CHAPTER 23: 1—9 265 

CHAPTER XXIII. 

VES. 1 — 9. THE DEATH AND BURIAL OF SAKAH. (1860 B. C.) 

1 And the life of Sarah was a hundred and seven and twenty 
years : these were the years of the life of Sarah. 

2 And Sarah died in Kiriath-arba (the same is Hebron), in the 
land of Canaan : and Abraham came to mourn for Sarah, and to 
weep for her. 

3 And Abraham rose up from before his dead, and spake unto the 
children of Heth, saying, 

4 I am a stranger and a sojourner with you : give me a possession 
of a burying-place with you, that I may bury my dead out of my 
sight. 

5 And the children of Heth answered Abraham, saying unto him, 

6 Hear us, my lord : thou art a prince of God* among us ; in the 
choice of our sepulchres bury thy dead ; none of us shall withhold from 
thee his sepulchre, but that thou mayest bury thy dead. 

7 And Abraham rose up, and bowed himself to the people of the 
land, even to the children of Heth. 

8 And he communed with them, saying, If it be your mind that 
I should bury my dead out of my sight, hear me, and entreat for me 
to Ephron the son of Zohar, 

9 that he may give me the cave of Machpelah, which he hath, 
which is in the end of his field ; for the full price let him give it to 
me in the midst of you for a possession of a burying-place. 

[*A. V. and M. 8. V., a mighty prince.] 

The longest life comes to an end at last. At 127 years of age 
Sarah, "the princess," died. It is probable that she died of sick- 
ness rather than of old age, in view of the fact that Abraham at- 
tained to 175 years, and Isaac to 180; and in our day it is ordi- 
nary for women to live to be as old as men. It is likewise possible 
that she died unexpectedly, if we are to understand literally the 
words "Sarah died in Hebron, and Abraham came to mourn for 
Sarah and to weep for her." Whence then did he come? We have 
seen that Abraham lived many long years in Beersheba, and we 
shall see that, after this, he continued to live long near to his 
famous well of this name, and under the shade of the grove which 
he had planted there. But Hebron also had been the place of his 
residence, in the oak-grove of Mamre, situated 25 miles to the N. 
E. of Beersheba (and 20 to the south of Jerusalem), where Abra- 
ham resided for twenty years, when the events happened that are 
related from ch. 13: 8 till ch. 20: 1, that is to say, till after the 
destruction of Sodom; and as the usages of the Orientals do not 
admit of the supposition that Sarah was there on a visit to 
friends, it is probable that Abraham had his immense encamp- 
ment and estate divided between different localities, for the con- 
venience of pasturage, and that Sarah was with one part in the 
oak-grove of Mamre, near to Hebron, while Abraham, not ex- 
pecting so sad an event, was at Beersheba, looking after his in- 
terests there. 



266 GENESIS 

Hebron still exists, and with Damascus the two are among the 
most ancient cities of the world. It was built seven years be- 
fore the famous city of Zoan in Egypt (Num. 13: 22), by the 
Anakim probably, and, was originally called Kirjath-arba (=City 
of Arba) ; "the which Arba was a great man among the Anakim." 
Josh. 14: 15. There, in the days of Abraham, the Hittites re- 
sided (vrs. 5, 7, 20), and among them his friend and ally Mamre, 
from whom took name the oak-grove of Mamre, and after whom 
also the city is called "the city of Mamre," in ch. 25: 27. 

There, or in the encampment close by, Sarah died; and Abra- 
ham came to mourn for her and to weep for her. This is the first 
notice we have of the funeral rites of the old time, and of the 
mourning, about which we read so often in the Bible; a custom 
which still forms their distinctive trait in Oriental lands. The 
words "to mourn for Sarah and to weep for her" give us to under- 
stand that this was more than the expression of his sincere and 
deep mourning for his aged companion, with whom he had walked 
in his life of sojourning for the space of 65 or 70 years; but in the 
funeral rites so designated we feel sure that those extravagancies 
would be Avoided which are usual among the eastern peoples; 
which ill accord with the character of severe simplicity which 
marks all the actions of this great prince, the friend of God. 
Isaac was about 36 years of age, his mother being about 91 at the 
time of his birth; and he, being yet unmarried, would take a 
very pathetic part in the mourning for his mother. The mourn- 
ing for Jacob in Egypt, a thing of etiquette and ceremony, lasted 
70 days, and that of his burial 7 days more. Ch. 50: 3 — 10. We 
are not told how many days, or how many hours, were spent 
in the mourning for Sarah; but it would seem that Abraham 
performed it seated, or prostrate on the ground; because when 
that ceremony was ended, "Abraham rose up from the presence 
of his dead," and spoke with the children of Heth for the purpose 
of obtaining the possession of a burial place where he might de- 
posit the mortal remains of his aged companion. 

But why should Abraham have deferred so important a matter 
till so inopportune an hour? Undoubtedly he had buried many 
individuals of his encampment in the 72 years he had sojourned 
in Canaan, 20 of them right there in the oak-grove of Mamre; 
so that he did not need a place of burial in general, but the pos- 
session of a burial-place for his own family. There did not exist 
among the Canaanites anything of that insane prejudice which 
exists today only in Roman Catholic countries and among the 
Turks, against allowing the rites of burial to those who are of a 
different religion from themselves, — as if the mother earth had 



CHAPTER 23: 1—9 267 

not space in her broad bosom for the mortal remains of all her 
children, irrespective of their religious beliefs and practices, or of 
their moral character: Abraham therefore did not have to con- 
tend against prejudices of this nature; why then did he not have 
the place already prepared? It is probable that from a period 
antedating the destruction of Sodom (at which time Abraham 
departed for the South country) he knew perfectly well this cave 
of Machpelah, and had it already chosen as a place that would 
suit him for his own especial use; but in his nomadic life it 
would not have been prudent to acquire it as his own property 
many years before he had need for it, and then abandon it to the 
use of others. The unexpected death of Sarah, in the neighbor- 
hood of Hebron settled the question as to the place of burial, and 
found her husband not yet possessor of the locality which, as we 
suppose, he had already selected. 

The story is extremely interesting: it is beautiful in its sim- 
plicity, and presents to us a vivid picture of Oriental usages and 
customs, which we shall in vain seek elsewhere, unless it be in 
the arrangement for the marriage of Ruth, which in its external 
circumstances, greatly resembles this. Ruth 4: 1 — 12. This con- 
ference, like that, took place in the gate of the city (vrs. 10, 18), 
where all public and much private business was transacted, where 
the judges administered justice, and persons of quality sat to dis- 
cuss matters of general interest. See ch. 19: 1 and comments. 
Going therefore to the gate of the city, Abraham made known the 
purpose of his coming, — that of acquiring the possession of a bur- 
ial-place among them, in order to bury his dead, hiding it "out of 
his sight"; and it was a case that did not admit of delay. The 
words "bury it out of my sight" are extremely pathetic, manifest- 
ing how soon that which we most esteem in life, when once the 
vital breath departs, is turned into an object of repugnance, which 
we need to hide out of our sight! Humbling confession, but in a 
high degree salutary for us mortal sinners! 

The reply of the children of Heth manifests the ascendancy 
which this great man everywhere possessed, in Egypt, in Gerar, 
or in Hebron, and the great respect with which he was every- 
where regarded — so different from the treatment which was 
accorded to his son Isaac, and also to Jacob. "A great prince 
(Heft, prince of God), art thou in the midst of us." They told 
him therefore to choose at his pleasure, and bury his dead in the 
best of their sepulchres. But this was not all in conformity with 
the wishes of Abraham; what he desired was the possession of a 
burial-place of his own, for himself and his immediate family. 
As therefore he had sat down after speaking, he stood up again, 



268 GENESIS 

and bowed himself before the people of the land. This bowing 
before the children of Heth was in token of profound respect, and 
of the esteem in which he held the generous offer that had been 
made him. In the same way Abraham and Lot had bowed their 
faces to the earth before the heavenly visitors, in the belief that 
they were no more than distinguished strangers. Ch. 18: 2 and 
19: 1. In all these cases the Latin Vulgate says adoravit, which 
according to Salva in his Latin-Spanish Dictionary, signifies not 
only to "adore" but "to salute with humility," and to "prostrate 
one's self"; a sense which the word "adore" does not have in 
Spanish or in English; and yet grave Roman Catholic authors 
argue that if Abraham "adored" the sons of Heth, how much more 
is it lawful and proper to "adore" the canonized saints, together 
with their images and relics? But the real argument is precisely 
the reverse of this, and goes to prove that what it was lawful to 
do with men, in compliment and courtesy, according to the 
usages of the Orientals, God has strictly prohibited, from the 
moment it is done as an act of religious worship: "Thou shalt 
not bow down thyself to them nor serve them; for I, Jehovah 
thy God, am a jealous God" (Ex. 20: 4, 5); or as he says with 
equal emphasis by the mouth of Isaiah: "I am Jehovah, that is 
my name; my glory will I not give to another, nor my praise to 
graven images." Isa. 42: 8. Most remarkable is this fact, and 
worthy of ceaseless remembrance, that the act which is lawful 
and proper as a social courtesy, God holds to be a grievous sin the 
instant it is done in worship paid to any beside himself. I take 
off my hat to a lady, or when I enter a church, and nobody mis- 
understands me; but to uncover in the street, or to incline the 
body before an image, or a consecrated wafer, everybody under- 
stands to be an act of religious worship. Anybody, however sim- 
ple he be, can distinguish between the two acts. It is to be noted 
in passing that the Jews ordinarily prayed to God standing (Matt. 
6:5; Mark. 11: 25; Luke 18: 11, 13), with the arms crossed on the 
breast, and with the head inclined, or the upper part of the body 
bowed toward the earth. 

23: 10 — 20. ABRAHAM BUYS FOB HIMSELF THE POSSESSION OF A 
BURIAL-PLACE IN THE LAND OF PROMISE. (1860 B. C.) 

10 Now Ephron was sitting in the midst of the children of Heth : 
and Ephron the Hittite answered Abraham in the audience of the 
children of Heth, even of all that went in at the gate of his city, 
saying, 

11 Nay, my lord, hear me : the field give I thee, and the cave that 
is therein, I give thee: in the presence of the children of my people 
give I it thee : bury thy dead. 



CHAPTER 23: 10—20 269 

12 And Abraham bowed himself down before the people of the 
land. 

13 And he spake unto Ephron in the audience of the people of 
the land, saying, But if thou wilt, I pray thee, hear me : I will give 
the price of the field ; take it of me, and I will bury my dead there. 

14 And Ephron answered Abraham, saying unto him, 

15 My lord, hearken unto me : a piece of land worth four hun- 
dred shekels of silver, what is that betwixt me and thee? bury there- 
fore thy dead. 

1G And Abraham hearkened unto Ephron ; and Abraham weighed 
to Ephron the silver which he had named in the audience of the 
children of Heth, four hundred shekels of silver, current money with 
the merchant. 

17 So the field of Ephron, which was in Machpelah, which was 
before Mamre, the field, and the cave which was therein, and all the 
trees that were in the field, that were in all the border thereof round 
about, were made sure 

18 unto Abraham for a possession in the presence of the children 
of Heth, before all that went in at the gate of his city. 

19 And after this, Abraham buried Sarah his wife in the cave of 
the field of Machpelah before Mamre (the same is Hebron), in the 
land of Canaan. 

20 And the field, and the cave that is therein, were made sure unto 
Abraham for a possession of a burying-place by the children of 
Heth. 

It would seem that Abraham, absent for many years from 
Hebron, did not by sight know Ephron, the owner of the land 
and of the cave which he desired to purchase; or if he knew him, 
he had some misgivings as to his willingness to agree to the 
transaction, so that he asked those present to intervene in the 
business, in order to induce the owner to sell him the property 
at its full value. Ephron was then sitting in the midst of them, 
and he answered for himself, taking for witnesses all those who 
came in and went out of the gate, that with entire good will he 
frankly gave him the field and the cave; and that Abraham should 
proceed to bury his dead without further delay. This bears the 
appearance of great magnanimity, and because of its ostentation 
of greatness of soul, this style of thing is very much the mode 
among the Orientals (and among some Occidentals as well) ; but 
alas for the unfortunate who accepts in good faith this class of of- 
fers! Abraham well understood with whom he was dealing; and 
bowing himself again, in acknowledgment of the magnanimous 
words of Ephron, he insists on making the purchase in hard cash; 
and, knowing as he did the usages of the times and the people, he 
asks as a favor that Ephron will accept payment for the property 
at its full value; and then he would bury there his dead. With 
the same affectation of magnanimity, Ephron names the price 
(which it may be understood was many times the real value of the 
land), saying "My lord, the land is worth 400 shekels; but ivhat 
is that between me and thee? Bury thy dead." At the usual 
valuation of 60 cents a shekel, the 400 shekels would amount to 



270 GENESIS 

$240 gold of our money, the value of which at that time would 
be five or ten times its worth today. Considering that a slave 
was worth thirty shekels ($18) in the time of Moses (Ex. 21: 
32), and that in the days of the Judges the salary of "a father 
and a priest," who offered his services and was accepted, amounted 
to "ten shekels of silver" ($6) hy the year, and a suit of apparel 
and his victuals (Judg. 17: 10), one can form an idea of the 
magnanimity of Ephron who affected to regard as an insignificant 
sum 400 shekels of silver, for a field that had no value for Abra- 
ham aside from the cave where he wished to lay his dead. Well, 
very well will it be for our evangelicals to learn in their business 
and in all their social relations to make use of that simplicity, 
sincerity and veracity which the gospel commends and teaches us, 
and which comes to distinguish all the nations that have felt its 
formative influence. 

Abraham cheerfully paid the money, "current money with the 
merchant," weighing it out in a faithful balance, in the presence 
of the sons of Heth. The art of coining money it seems was in- 
vented something like 700 years before Christ, though it was not 
practiced among the Jews until the time of the Maccabees. Be- 
fore that, purchases were made by weighing in the balance the 
gold and silver, in the form of bars, ingots, or jewels; which 
was extraordinarily favorable to the practice of dishonesty in 
pecuniary transactions, and gave occasion for the frequent 
denunciations of Holy Writ against false weights and bal- 
ances. 

In the time of Jeremiah they made use of deeds of pur- 
chase, signed and sealed in the presence of witnesses (Jer. 
32: 9 — 15); but in the days of Abraham eye-witnesses accredited 
the deed, as also in the days of Boaz and Ruth (Ruth 4: 7 — 11) ;. 
and the gate of the city was the place where all such trans- 
actions took place. According to the usages of the Orientals, once 
the cave of Machpelah was used for the burial of Sarah, it 
would remain inviolate for the family of Abraham, whether he 
and his dwelt in Hebron, in Beersheba or in Egypt. Ch. 
49: 29—32. 

In mountainous and hilly countries, caves, in addition to serv- 
ing as habitations for the living (ch. 19: 30), served likewise 
as places of sepulture for the dead; and the mouth of the cave 
being closed with great stones, for defence against wild animals, 
there was a moral certainty that no hand of man would violate 
the repose of their mortal remains. Ordinarily, and according to 
the several ability of the proprietors, they were cut into dif- 
ferent chambers, with galleries and niches, where (without a 



CHAPTER 23: 10—20 271 

coffin) were deposited the bodies of the dead, without being 
covered with earth. As this cave of Machpelah served for at 
least three generations, it is evident that some such work was 
done there after the burial of Sarah; Jacob, who was buried 
in the same cave (ch. 49: 29 — 32), said to Joseph in Egypt, 
making him swear to its faithful performance: "In the grave 
which I have digged (Heb. cut) for me in the land of Canaan, 
there shalt thou bury me." Ch. 50: 5. But it is clear that 
Abraham did nothing of the kind before he buried Sarah 
there. 

This is the first notice we have in the Bible of the holding 
of real estate, and its manner of transfer from one owner to 
another; and it is interesting from many points of view. Abraham 
claimed the right of property in the well which he had dug 
in Beersheba in the open pasture lands; and he took measures 
to prove that fact. Ch. 21: 30. Here, he to whom God had 
given the whole land, without giving him a foot-breadth of it 
in actual possession, bought for himself the possession of a 
burial-place in the land of promise; and he took pains to 
secure it by all the formalities known in that day, so that his 
title should remain indisputable; and having finished all these 
formalities, he buried there his dead wife. 

Peter celebrates the virtues of Sarah, and sets her as a model 
for the imitation of Christian women (1 Pet. 3: 5, 6); and Paul 
celebrates her faith, (Heb. 11:12); but though a faithful and 
exemplary wife, and doubtless an affectionate mother, she seems, 
according to the little that is related of her, to have been im- 
patient of God's delay to fulfil his promises, rash and inconsid- 
erate in the remedies which she applied to meet the need, 
and little submissive as regards the consequences of her error. 
It was natural that the "princess" (= Sarah) should have been 
proud; it is certain that she was jealous of her rival Hagar, and 
she was surely imprudent. On the former occasion, she "mal- 
treated" Hagar, so that she fled to the desert (ch. 16: 6); and 
the word maltreated (Span. Vers.), implies not only harsh 
treatment, but cruelty as well (Heb. afflicted) ; — it is the word 
always used of the oppression of Israel in Egypt; and when the 
last offence was committed, which was not the less Hagar's for 
being the act of her son (ch. 21: 9, 10), Sarah's demand: "Cast 
out this slave ( = bondwoman) and her son; for the son 
of this slave shall not be heir with my son, with Isaac!" — her 
demand seems to have been somewhat imperious, as well as 
harsh. Without danger of mistake, we may be sure that the 
honored wife of Abraham was not as amiable as she was beau- 



272 GENESIS 

tiful. But we should be thankful that there is place in the 
kingdom of God for persons of every different form of natural 
disposition and temper. 

The Hittites are mentioned in this chapter as the people who 
occupied Hebron. The Egyptian and Assyrian monuments speak 
of the Hittites as a powerful and cultured nation which for long 
time ruled over a great part of Canaan, and over Syria to 
the north of it, from the river Orontes as far as Carchemish on 
the river Euphrates. From Josh. 1:4, it would appear that 
the land in general from Lebanon to the river Euphrates on 
the north, and to the Mediterranean Sea on the west, was 
called "all the land of the Hittites"; which corresponds with 
what those monuments say of the power and dominion of the 
descendants of Heth, the second son of Canaan. 

CHAPTER XXIV. 

VRS. 1 — 9. A WIFE IS SOUGHT FOE ISAAC. (1857 B. C.) 

1 And Abraham was old, and well stricken in age : and Jehovah 
had blessed Abraham in all things. 

2 And Abraham said unto his servant, the elder of his house, that 
ruled over all that he had, Put, I pray thee, thy hand under my 
thigh : 

3 and I will make thee swear by Jehovah, the God of heaven and 
the God of the earth, that thou wilt not take a wife for my son of 
the daughters of the Canaanites, among whom I dwell : 

4 but thou shalt go unto my country, and to my kindred, and take 
a wife for my son Isaac. 

5 And the servant said unto him, Peradventure the woman will 
not be willing to follow me unto this land : must I needs bring thy son 
again unto the land from whence thou earnest? 

6 And Abraham said unto him, Beware thou that thou bring not 
my son thither again. 

7 Jehovah, the God of Heaven, who took me from my father's 
house, and from the land of my nativity, and who spake unto me, and 
who sware unto me, saying, Unto thy seed will I give this land ; he 
will send his angel before thee, and thou shalt take a wife for my 
son from thence. 

8 And if the woman be not willing to follow thee, then thou shalt 
be clear from this my oath ; only thou shalt not bring my son thither 
again. 

9 And the servant put his hand under the thigh of Abraham his 
master, and sware to him concerning this matter. 

The solicitous and scrupulous care with which Abraham sought 
a wife for his son Isaac, a wife whose character and condition 
should not frustrate the great purpose of his calling and that 
of his posterity, places in very clear light the mad precipitancy, 
or foolish carelessness, with which many persons who make 
a profession of piety, enter into the marriage state, and the 
little care they exercise as to whether the woman be apt or 
inapt to fulfil the duties of wife and mother. Many excellent 



CHAPTER 24: 1—9 273 

men, and even some who excel in their Christian character 
and personal endowments, and even many ministers of the 
gospel, have done themselves enormous injury, and sometimes 
have reduced their character and influence to a nullity, by means 
of an improper or ill-advised marriage. There are some who 
do not use as much intelligent care in selecting one who shall 
be the mother of their children, and have a formative and de- 
cisive influence in their character and destiny, both temporal 
and eternal, as in seeking a clerk for their business or a herds- 
man for their cattle. 

Not so Abraham. Isaac was 40 years old. His mother was 
dead, and Abraham had reliable information about the family 
of his brother Nahor, which gave promise that he would find 
in his family the companion he sought for his son. For some 
years past the name of Rebekah, the daughter of Bethuel, the 
son of Nahor, was familiar in his house. Ch. 22: 23. Abraham 
was well advanced in days, and the recent death of Sarah 
(three years before, chs. 17: 17; 23: 1; 25: 20) reminded him 
of the uncertainty of his own life. He desired therefore, that 
Isaac without further delay should marry. He sought for his 
son a wife of his own tribe, who should have no relations of 
friendship or kindred with the idolatrous Canaanites; relations 
such as might endanger the divine purpose which had separated 
him from the idolatries of his own family, 75 years before; 
a woman who would readily comprehend the mission of his 
family, and cheerfully lend herself to its fulfilment. 

Beautiful women, and "of good family," there were among 
the Canaanites, who from any worldly point of view were 
suitable to be received into his family, and whose fathers would 
esteem it a great honor to ally themselves with a great prince 
like Abraham; and from the difficulty there was in communicat- 
ing with his own people, it would be easy that, through a fraudu- 
lent understanding with any of the princes of Canaan, some 
well-born Hittite or Canaanite woman might be substituted 
for a woman of his own race. But what a calamity this would 
be for Isaac, who was naturally of a soft and yielding dispo- 
sition! and how calamitous for the hopes of the entire world, 
which he held in his hands! See ch. 18: 18, 19. Abraham 
did not wish, therefore, in a matter of such transcendent im- 
portance to trust merely to the proved integrity of his steward, 
the elder of his house, but took of him a formal and solemn 
oath that he would not deceive him in this commission and em- 
bassy. The servant saw at once the difficulties of his commis- 
sion, and he evidently knew beforehand that it was not the will 



274 'GENESIS 

of Abraham that his son should return to the land from whence 
God had brought him out. Fearing therefore the oath which 
was demanded of him, and knowing that the death of his 
master was possible during the time of his absence, before 
giving the oath which was asked he inquired whether, in case 
the woman should refuse to follow him to that land, unknown 
to her, he should carry his son there. Abraham did not wish 
that his son should return to Haran; for the very reason that 
he had not himself gone back to visit his people, because con- 
trary to the express terms of his divine calling. He therefore 
said to him that under no circumstances whatsoever, should 
he do so; that the God who had called him, and had intrusted 
to his hands so great and precious promises, would send his 
angel before him and would arrange it all. Great faith had 
Abraham in his God; and the ministry of angels, and in par- 
ticular that of the Angel-Jehovah (see ch. 48: 15, 16), entered 
into all his conceptions of God's divine providence; and the 
event justified this supreme confidence of his. He said to 
him, therefore, that he would be free from that oath, if he 
went to his kindred and they should refuse to give him the 
woman asked for (vr. 41) ; but always under the condition that 
he should in no case carry his son there. 

The form of the oath which Abraham demanded of him we do 
not find to be used on any other occasion, except that on which 
Jacob took oath of his son Joseph that he would not bury him 
in the land of Egypt, or anywhere else than the land given 
by God to his fathers. Ch. 47: 29—41. The form, doubtless, 
had to do with the covenant of circumcision and its seal, in 
both cases; as though he had in view the promise of that land 
which the patriarchs were unwilling to abandon either in life or 
in death. This scruple being removed, the steward took the oath 
in the form required. 

[Note 23. — On "the Elder" Here, for the first time in the 
Old Testament, we meet with the "Elder" as an official title. 
The translation given in the old Versions (including the A. V. Eng- 
lish), "his eldest servant of his house," is undoubtedly incorrect. 
Abraham's steward was a vigorous, active, enterprising and most 
capable man, who was neither "old" nor still less "the oldest 
of his house"; and with the best of cause the Revision translates 
it "the elder of his house, that ruled over all that he had." It 
is a fact, which should never be lost sight of, that in the Old 
Testament, the government of the people, both civil and re- 
ligious, was in the hands, not of the priests, but of the "elders" 
appointed for that purpose; and it would seem that this form 



CHAPTER 24: 10—27 275 

of popular government was general in the surrounding nations; 
for we read of "the elders of the house of Pharaoh," "the elders 
of Egypt," "the elders of Moab," "the elders of Midian," etc. 
Ch. 50: 7; Num. 22: 4 — 7. It is important to remember always 
that neither in the Old Testament nor in the times of the New 
Testament were Jewish priests the governors of the people; 
but on the contrary, "the elders of the people," "the elders of 
Israel," "the elders of the city," "the elders of Gilead," "the elders 
of Jabesh," etc., — not one, but a plurality of elders — were always 
the immediate rulers of the people, including the government 
of the synagogue. "The elders of the people" represented and 
governed them even in the midst of the slavery of Egypt. Ex. 
3: 16 — 18. This is a clear indication that popular government 
derives its origin from very ancient times, and even under 
despotic kings, "the elders of the people," or "the elders of 
the city," served as some manner of check upon the arbitrary 
proceedings of the throne. 1 Kings 21: 8, 11. And when in 
the New Testament we pass from the civil State to the Syna- 
gogue, and from the Synagogue to the Church, we observe the 
same fact, to wit, popular goveenment, by means of elders or 
presbyters. Acts 14: 23; Tit. 1: 15. Only in the Roman church, 
ever since they cast down every divine institution which they 
have not been able to turn to the account of their own narrow 
and selfish purposes, has the priest been elevated above the 
civil power, as the supreme government; and "the elder," or 
presbyter, they have turned into a "priest"; in order that free 
and popular government may be forever destroyed.] 

24: 10 — 27. Abraham's steward sets out for Mesopotamia, to 
haran, the city of nahor. the meeting with rebekah. (1857 

B. C.) 

10 And the servant took ten camels, of the camels of his master, 
and departed, having all goodly things of his master's in his hand : 
and he arose, and went to Mesopotamia, unto the city of Nahor. 

11 And he made the camels to kneel down without the city by 
the well of water at the time of evening, the time that women go out 
to draw water. 

12 And he said, O Jehovah, the God of my master Abraham, send 
me, I pray thee, good speed this day, and show kindness unto my 
master Abraham. 

13 Behold, I am standing by the fountain of water ; and the 
daughters of the men of the city are coming out to draw water : 

14 and let it come to pass, that the damsel to whom I shall say, 
Let down thy pitcher, I pray thee, that I may drink ; and she shall 
say, Drink, and I will give thy camels drink also : let the same be 
she that thou hast appointed for thy servant Isaac ; and thereby shall 
I know that thou hast showed kindness unto my master. 

15 And it came to pass, before he had done speaking, that, be- 
hold, Rebekah came out, who was born to Bethuel the son of Milcah, 



276 GENESIS 

the wife of Nahor, Abraham's brother, with her pitcher upon her 
shoulder. 

16 And the damsel was very fair to look upon, a virgin, neither 
had any man known her : and she went down to the fountain, and 
filled her pitcher, and came up. 

17 And the servant ran to meet her, and said, Give me to drink, 
I pray thee, a little water from thy pitcher. 

18 And she said, Drink, my lord : and she hasted, and let down 
her pitcher upon her hand, and gave him drink. 

19 And when she had done giving him drink, she said, I will draw 
for thy camels also, until they have done drinking. 

20 And she hasted, and emptied her pitcher into the trough, and 
ran again unto the well to draw, and drew for all his camels. 

21 And the man looked steadfastly on her, holding his peace, to 
know whether Jehovah had made his journey prosperous or not. 

22 And it came to pass, as the camels had done drinking, that the 
man took a golden ring of half a shekel weight, and two bracelets for 
her hands of ten shekels weight of gold, 

23 and said, Whose daughter art thou? tell me, I pray thee. Is 
there room in thy father's house for us to lodge in? 

24 And she said unto him, I am the daughter of Bethuel the son 
of Milcah, whom she bare unto Nahor. 

25 She said morever unto him, We have both straw and provender 
enough, and room to lodge in. 

26 And the man bowed his head, and worshipped Jehovah. 

27 And he said, Blessed be Jehovah, the God of my master Abra- 
ham, who hath not forsaken his lovingkindness and his truth toward 
my master : as for me, Jehovah hath led me in the way to the house 
of my master's brethren. 

Abraham bound his steward with a solemn oath that he would 
not betray his confidence in so important a matter; but who 
was to answer for it that he did not betray the confidence of 
the woman and her family? In order that on this side there 
should be no lack of complete security, Abraham ordered his 
steward to take ten camels of the camels of his master, laden 
with the choicest of his goods and possessions; and this would 
serve both as a dowry, and also as a guaranty that he was 
really the servant of Abraham. 

The journey of 500 miles is described in a single line: "And 
he arose and went to Mesopotamia, unto the city of Nahor." 
Arriving there at the close of day, he made his camels to 
kneel down, and waited beside the well, from whence all the 
city, and probably all the cattle of the surrounding district were 
supplied with water (ch. 29:2, 3); and he raised his heart 
to God in prayer, that, at that hour, when the daughters of the 
men of the city were coming forth to draw water, the God 
of his master Abraham, would designate to him, then and there, 
which among them he had appointed for his servant Isaac. This 
spring of waters is twice called a "well" in this chapter, and 
seven times it is called a "fountain"; and in vr. 16 we are 
told that Rebekah "went down to the fountain and filled her 
pitcher, and came up"; all which seems to indicate that it 



CHAPTER 24: 10—27 277 

was in fact a spring of waters, which they had deepened, leav- 
ing steps to go down and come up on them; differing in this 
from the well, so called, from which the water is drawn with 
a rope. The servant, doubtless carried with him, on so long 
a journey, the means of drawing water in case of need, and 
his men were as capable of going down and up the steps as 
was Rebekah; it appears, therefore, either that he had only 
just arrived, or that it was his fine device, and not his necessity, 
which led him to ask water of the first young woman who 
came. And Rebekah must have been the first; for before he 
had done offering his petition (not audibly, but "in his heart," 
vr. 45), Rebekah presented herself and fulfilled to the letter 
what he had thought out as an excellent means of resolving 
his doubts. The sign thus devised, asked, and performed, was 
most excellent from another point of view, since it indicated 
that the young woman who was to be his new mistress, was 
courteous, amiable and obliging; so that the servant asked a 
good mistress for himself, a good wife for Isaac, and a divine 
election and designation, all in one breath. A good lesson is 
this in favor of courtesy and politeness in our deportment, 
whether with persons known or unknown. How much did Re- 
bekah gain for herself that day, from being attentive and oblig- 
ing to strangers! 

The family of Bethuel was in moderate circumstances. The 
twelve sons of his father Nahor (ch. 22: 20 — 24), must have 
reduced to very little the part of the family estate which fell 
to each one in particular. The circumstance that Rebekah, a 
beautiful young woman, should go forth to draw water, suggests 
it, but does not prove it; for they had servants for other work 
(vr. 61), and it seems that it was the custom of the town "for 
the daughters of the men of the city to go forth to draw 
water" at that hour, — women of the highest respectability, among 
whom the servant of Abraham thought he would find a wife 
worthy of the son of Abraham. But so far as we can ascertain 
from indications given, Bethuel had no other children than 
Rebekah and her brother Laban, who after the departure of 
Rebekah, inherited the whole estate of his father; notwith- 
standing which, he was a poor man when Jacob, the son of 
Rebekah, took charge of his flocks, 90 or 95 years afterwards, 
and God commenced to bless him by the management of his 
nephew. Ch. 30: 30. From all which we infer with certainty 
that the arrival of such an embassy in search of a wife for 
the son and heir of the rich and powerful prince Abraham, 
could not fail to produce a very deep impression upon the 



278 GENESIS 

family, and among all the people of the town. This device 
of proposing some particular sign by which to ascertain the 
will of God, is of very old use and abuse in the world; of 
which this is the first instance we find in the Bible. The same 
usage would seem to be as common today as in Bible times. 
Gideon betook himself twice to this expedient for dispelling 
his doubts (Judg. 6:17, 37); but it is very ill-advised, in our 
day, to leave the practical and important decisions of life to 
the arbitrament of signs of this kind; and very grievous errors 
arise from accrediting God with the outcome of such tests. 
With the book of God for our teaching, with his providence 
and Spirit for our guide, and with the throne of the heavenly 
grace always accessible through Jesus Christ, it is as useful 
as it is necessary for us to dear the responsibility of our own 
decisions, in the doubtful and difficult cases of life; and God 
wishes thus to form in his sons and daughters that robustness 
and firmness of character which is always lacking in those who 
govern their actions by the supposed signs of good or evil 
fortune, or who leave the resolution of their doubts and scruples 
in the hands of some confessor or spiritual guide, who pretends to 
act for them in God's stead; contrary to the express command of 
Christ. Matt. 23: 9, 10. 

The steward, surprised and even amazed at the so prompt 
and exact fulfilment of the sign which he had asked of the 
God of his master Abraham, fastened his eyes upon Rebekah, 
with admiration and rejoicing; yet, like a prudent man, he 
waited to assure himself more completely of the fact. But 
when he learned from her own mouth that she was that 
Rebekah, the daughter of Bethuel, the son of Nahor, of whom 
they had personal knowledge in the house of his master, even 
before the death of Sarah, and whose name was a familiar word 
there, he broke forth in blessings upon Jehovah, the God of 
his master Abraham, who had led him by a straight way to the 
house of the brethren of his master. He therefore placed a 
golden ring in her nostril and bracelets upon her hand (vr. 47) ; 
and she, without waiting for anything further, ran to carry 
the unexpected tidings to the "house of her mother" (vr. 28) : 
the servant had naturally asked after the "house of her father." 
Vr. 23. It is to be noticed that he did not put two rings in 
her ears, but one ring, or nose-jewel, in her nostril. This offends 
our taste; but such was and still is the usage of the women of 
the Orient. 



CHAPTER 24: 28—33 279 

24: 28 — 33. laban and Abraham's steward. (1857 b. c.) 

28 And the damsel ran, and told her mother's house according to 
these words. 

29 And Rebekah had a brother, and his name was Laban : and 
Laban ran out unto the man, unto the fountain. 

30 And it came to pass, when he saw the ring, and the bracelets 
upon his sister's hands, and when he heard the words of Rebekah 
his sister, saying, Thus spake the man unto me ; that he came unto 
the man ; and, behold, he was standing by the camels at the foun- 
tain. 

31 And he said, Come in, thou blessed of Jehovah ; wherefore 
standest thou without? for I have prepared the house, and room for 
the camels. 

32 And the man came into the house, and he ungirded the camels ; 
and he gave straw and provender for the camels, and water to wash 
his feet and the feet of the men that were with him. 

33 And there was set food before him to eat : but he said, I will 
not eat, until I have told mine errand. And he said, Speak on. 

It would seem that Bethuel had no other children but Laban 
and Rebekah; and when she heard the pious ejaculations of 
praise to Jehovah, the God of his master Abraham, which his 
steward uttered, on seeing his desires and prayers so wonderfully 
fulfilled and so instantaneously, she ran and told the news in 
the "house of her mother" Laban on hearing it, set out to 
run, and the sight of the jewels of gold which he saw on the 
person of his sister, lent wings to his feet. In this short 
paragraph we have a living and breathing portraiture of Laban, 
such as he appears without disguise in the history of Jacob: — 
selfish, covetous of gold, sagacious, astute, a noisy boaster, and 
unscrupulous as to the means of gaining his ends. It is evident 
that Bethuel, whether from natural deficiency, or from dotage, 
amounted to little or nothing, and nobody made any account 
of him. In vr. 28, it is said that although the servant asked 
as to the house of her father (vr. 23), Rebekah related the 
incident of the well in the house of her mother; and in the 
whole chapter Bethuel passes for nothing but the father of 
Rebekah; and even when in vr. 50, we are told that he did say 
something, he is mentioned after Laban, and only as concurring 
in what he had said. In the rest of the story he is not even 
mentioned, but Laban and his mother do everything. Laban 
is the great man who takes charge of the whole business. On 
hearing, therefore, the message of his sister, and seeing on her 
person the jewels of gold, he runs to the well where the man 
was still standing, and says to him: "I have prepared the house 
and room for the camels," without having done anything at 
all; and although he repudiated Jehovah, the new God of 
Abraham (see ch. 31: 29, 30, 42, 53), with open mouth he salutes 
in his name the servant of Abraham, standing there beside the 



280 GENESIS 

fountain: "Come in thou blessed of Jehovah! wherefore standest 
thou without? for I have prepared the house and room for the 
camels." He made himself busy in bringing straw and forage 
for the camels, and water to wash the feet of the whole party; 
for it seems that the sight of the gold, and the hope of material 
profit, moved the innermost fibres of his sordid heart, and 
set in action the most powerful springs of his being; as we 
shall see farther on, in chapters 29, 30 and 31. 

When they had come to the house, and the camels were un- 
loaded and cared for, and the feet of the travellers were washed, 
they set food before them; but the steward, diligent in every- 
thing, the model of a faithful servant, refused to eat until 
he had made known the business upon which he had come. 

24: 34 — 49. Abraham's steward makes known his business. 

(1857 b. c.) 

34 And he said, I am Abraham's servant. 

35 And Jehovah hath blessed my master greatly ; and he is become 
great : and he hath given him flocks and herds, and silver and gold, 
and men-servants and maid-servants, and camels and asses. 

36 And Sarah my master's wife bare a son to my master when she 
was old : and unto him hath he given all that he hath. 

37 And my master made me swear, saying, Thou shalt not take 
a wife for my son of the daughters of the Canaanites, in whose land 
I dwell: 

38 but thou shalt go unto my father's house, and to my kindred, 
and take a wife for my son. 

39 And I said unto my master, Peradventure the woman will not 
follow me. 

40 And he said unto me, Jehovah, before whom I walk, will send 
his angel with thee, and prosper thy way ; and thou shalt take a wife 
for my son of my kindred, and of my father's house : 

41 then shalt thou be clear from my oath, when thou comest to 
my kindred ; and if they give her not to thee, thou shalt be clear from 
my oath. 

42 And I came this day unto the fountain, and said, O Jehovah, 
the God of my master Abraham, if now thou do prosper my way 
which I go : 

43 behold, I am standing by the fountain of water; and let it 
come to pass, that the maiden that cometh forth to draw, to whom I 
shall say, Give me, I pray thee, a little water from thy pitcher to 
drink ; 

44 and she shall say to me, Both drink thou, and I will also draw 
for thy camels : let the same be the woman whom Jehovah hath ap- 
pointed for my master's son. 

45 And before I had done speaking in my heart, behold, Rebekah 
came forth with her pitcher on her shoulder; and she went down 
unto the fountain, and drew: and I said unto her, Let me drink, I 
pray thee. 

46 And she made haste, and let down her pitcher from her 
shoulder, and said, Drink, and I will give thy camels drink also : so I 
drank, and she made the camels drink also. 

47 And I asked her, and said, Whose daughter art thou? And she 
said, The daughter of Bethuel, Nahor's son, whom Milcah bare unto 
him : and I put the ring upon her nose, and the bracelets upon her 
hands. 



CHAPTER 24: 34—39 281 

48 And I bowed my head, and worshipped Jehovah, and blessed 
Jehovah, the God of my master Abraham, who had led me in the 
right way to take my master's brother's daughter for his son. 

49 And now if ye will deal kindly and truly with my master, tell 
me : and if not, tell me ; that I may turn to the right hand, or to the 
left. 

The paragraph does not call for explanations or comments; 
it is a relation in extenso of what has already been said, which 
Abraham's steward makes in order that Rebekah and her family 
might see the surprising way in which God had brought him, 
in his performance of the commission which his master had 
given him; and then he leaves them to determine for them- 
selves whether or not it would suit them to comply with the 
request that Rebekah should become the wife of his master 
Isaac. In ch. 25: 5, that is related as history which the servant 
of Abraham here declares in the way of information, regarding 
the immense estate of his master; viz, that Abraham had given 
everything to Isaac, for whom he asked the hand of Rebekah. 
It is probable that to the seven sons of his two concubines 
he had already given rich portions, such as was suitable to them 
as his sons, and had sent them far away from Isaac, previous 
to his marriage; so that the servant might well say that 
Abraham had given his whole estate to Isaac. See comments on 
ch. 25:1 — 4, 5, 6, where will be given conclusive reasons for 
believing that Abraham took to wife Keturah, not only before 
the death of Sarah, but before the birth of Isaac; so that long 
before the marriage of Isaac, at forty years of age, all his 
half-brothers had received their portions and had removed from 
the encampment. It is the usage of the Bible to make what is 
said in one part supplement, or limit, what is said about the 
same matter in another, — an important rule for us to observe in 
our interpretations of Scripture. The steward in effect tells 
Rebekah and her family that the brother of Nahor had been 
greatly prospered by the blessing of Jehovah, his new God; 
so that he was exceedingly rich in flocks and herds, in silver 
and gold, in men-servants and maid-servants, in camels and asses; 
and that Isaac, the son of his old age, by Sarah, his own proper 
wife, was his only heir. This would be very true, even if 
Abraham gave portions to the seven sons of his concubines after 
this; but more strikingly true if it were so that they, being older 
than Isaac, had already received the share of their father's goods 
and chattels which was coming to them, and had been sent 
away towards the east country before the marriage of Isaac. 
Having set forth thus fully the subject, he left the question 
to their decision, asking only that they would make it directly 



282 GENESIS 

and without delay, simply and decisively; in order that in case 
they did not accede to his request, he might at once "turn to the 
right or the left"; that is to say, apply to the other sons of Nahor 
for the same purpose. 

24: 50 — 53. laban and his fathee bethuel grant the request 
of the steward. (1857 b, c.) 

50 Then Laban and Bethuel answered and said, The thing pro- 
ceedeth from Jehovah : we cannot speak unto thee bad or good. 

51 Behold, Rebekah is before thee, take her, and go, and let her 
be thy master's son's wife, as Jehovah hath spoken. 

52 And it came to pass, that, when Abraham's servant heard their 
words, he bowed himself down to the earth unto Jehovah. 

53 And the servant brought forth jewels of silver, and jewels of 
gold, and raiment, and gave them to Rebekah : he gave also to her 
brother and to her mother precious things. 

In all this matter Laban acts --the part of the great man, and 
Bethuel, the father of the young woman, is almost a nullity. 
This is the reason why Josephus, the Jewish historian, supposes 
that Bethuel, the father of Rebekah and Laban, had died several 
years before, and that the Bethuel of verse 50, was a younger 
brother of Rebekah and of Laban; — a supposition adopted by 
some commentators. But there is not the remotest suggestion 
of such a thing in the text, or in any other part of the Bible. 
On the contrary, vrs. 50, 53 treat of Laban as the only brother 
of Rebekah, to whom, together with herself and her mother, 
the servant of Abraham made gifts of precious things, but 
without making account of any other brother, or of the father; 
and it is to be observed also, that when the servant of Abraham 
asked Rebekah if there was place for them "in the house of her 
father," she replied that there was; without giving any intimation 
that she no longer had a father. 

The formal presentation of his cause which the servant of 
Abraham had made, had the desired effect; and at once Laban 
declared (in which his father Bethuel concurred), that the 
whole business was from Jehovah, whose will it did not be- 
come them to oppose: and they at once disposed of the person 
of Rebekah, without even consulting her. This was and still 
is the manner of the Orientals in disposing of their women, who 
in this matter conform to the will of their fathers, who have, 
as they are told, the right to dispose of them. In fact, 
just as happens among pagan nations today, the suitor paid 
the dowry of the woman to her father and her family. Abraham 
understood this very well when he sent ten camels loaded with 
the most precious things he had, in part as gifts to the young 
woman, but a great part of it would go as her dowry, and be 



CHAPTER 24: 54—61 283 

paid to the family; a point about which there would be no dispute 
in a case like this, where gifts were so many and so rich. Jacob 
paid the dowry of his beloved Rachel with seven years of per- 
sonal labor, and the villain Laban, by means of a cruel de- 
ception, appropriated this as the dowry of Leah, whom Jacob 
neither asked for nor loved, and obliged him to bind himself for 
seven other years of service, before he could gain possession 
of Rachel; of all which dowry they two received' no part what- 
ever: see ch. 31: 15, 41. And young Shechem, enamored of 
Dinah, the daughter of Jacob, said to him and to his sons: "Ask 
me never so much dowry and gifts, and I will give according as 
ye shall say unto me; but give me the damsel to wife!" 
Ch. 34: 12. And yet, as they left it entirely to the will of 
Rebekah, whether or not she would go at once with the servant 
of Abraham, as he asked, it is probable that on acceding without 
delay to the servant's petition, they saw very clearly that the 
engagement would be altogether in accord with her own wishes. 
On hearing so grateful intelligence from the mouth of Laban 
and Bethuel, and on seeing the business which had brought 
him so promptly concluded, and so much to his satisfaction, the 
servant of Abraham prostrated himself to the earth before 
Jehovah, in the attitude of adoring thankfulness and worship. 
The circumstance that there was there neither altar, nor sac- 
rifice, nor vision, nor any other manifestation of the presence 
of God, gives to us the unchallengeable and most precious evidence 
that even in those remote times, the pious servants of God 
recognized his presence in every place, and "worshipped him in 
spirit and in truth"; — a point on which Jesus insists that it 
is, it will be, and always has been indispensable, in order that our 
worship may be pleasing to God. John 4: 24. 

The subject being thus happily concluded, "the servant brought 
forth jewels of silver and jewels of gold, and raiment, and 
gave them to Rebekah; he gave also precious things to her 
brother and to her mother," — and all this before he would sit 
down to eat! Happy Abraham in having so faithful and zealous 
a steward! Bethuel was undoubtedly in his dotage, or in some 
way lacking in judgment and weight of character, for them to 
make so little account of him; because it was to the father, first 
of all, that the dowry of his daughters belonged. Ex. 22: 17. 

24: 54 — 61. the faithful and assiduous steward, rebekah 
consents to go at once j and in fact she goes, together with 
her maidens. (1857 b. c.) 
54 And they did eat and drink, he and the men that were with 



284 GENESIS 

him, and tarried all night ; and they rose up in the morning, and he 
said, Send me away unto my master. 

55 And her brother and her mother said, Let the damsel abide 
with us a few days, at the least ten ; after that she shall go. 

56 And he said unto them, Hinder me not, seeing Jehovah hath 
prospered my way ; send me away that I may go to my master. 

57 And they said, we will call the damsel, and inquire at her 
mouth. 

58 And they called Rebekah, and said unto her, Wilt thou go with 
this man? And she said, I will go. 

59 And they sent away Rebekah their sister, and her nurse, and 
Abraham's servant, and his men. 

60 And they blessed Rebekah, and said unto her, Our sister, be 
thou the mother of thousands of ten thousands, and let thy seed pos- 
sess the gate of those that hate them. 

61 And Rebekah arose, and her damsels, and they rode upon the 
camels, and followed the man : and the servant took Rebekah, and 
went his way. 

Having finished so satisfactorily his business, the steward and 
his men (who would be in sufficient number for the defence 
of the caravan in its long journey through uninhabited deserts), 
ate, drank and slept, and on rising the next morning, instead 
of taking some days to rest, and to see the city and its objects 
of interest, the steward said: "Send me away to my master!" 
If he had spent ten days arranging the question of a wife for 
Isaac, he would have regarded it as time well employed; but 
he finished it before eating, and not one day longer did he wish 
to remain! The brother of the young woman and her mother 
wished a delay of at least ten days. By a singular Hebrew 
idiom, the word "days" sometimes stands for a year (as in 
1 Sam. 1: 21; 2: 19; 27: 7; Judg. 17: 10), and there are persons 
who, instead of "some days, at least ten," would translate it 
a "year or ten months." But this is quite improbable; and if 
the servant of Abraham had so understood it, it is no wonder 
that, with yet greater earnestness, he should insist on taking his 
departure at once. The fact that Jehovah, had prospered his 
way, which another would have converted into an argument 
to spend some days in recreation or in resting after so long 
a journey, operated with him in precisely the opposite direction: 
"Hinder me not, seeing that Jehovah hath prospered my way! 
Send me away that I may go to my master;" They agreed then 
to let the young woman herself decide the question. 

So they called her, and when asked if she would go with 
that man, that is, if she would go at once, she replied: "Yes, 
I will go." For this so prompt and decided a reply, some have 
accused Rebekah of being hasty and inconstant; but such an 
opinion is founded on known defects of her subsequent char- 
acter, and it is probably an unjust judgment. On, the contrary, 



CHAPTER 24: G2— 67 285 

her reply indicates resolution and decision of character; all 
the more, if she understood that they wished to detain her for a 
whole year, and leave the servant of Abraham to return without 
her. 

The history might leave on us the impression that the travelers 
took leave of them that same day; hut it is not necessary to 
suppose that it happened so in fact, but only that they at once 
set about making the necessary preparations, and with all pos- 
sible dispatch they sent her away, with the nurse who had 
cared for her from a child, and her maidens, and the servant 
of Abraham and his men. And they blessed Rebekah, saying: 
"Our sister, be thou the mother of thousands of ten thousands; 
and let thy seed possess the gate of their enemies!" Compare 
comments on ch. 22: 17. The maidens, or maid-servants, which 
Rebekah carried with her, besides her nurse, do not indicate 
great prosperity on the part of the family; for this was the 
sum total of what she obtained of the property of her father; 
and when the life of a slave was valued at 30 shekels of silver 
( = .$18, Ex. 22: 21, 32: see Zech. 11: 12, 13; Matt. 26: 15; Comp. 
Lev. 27: 2, 3, 4), and the hire of "a father and a priest," at 
ten shekels of silver ( = $6 gold) by the year, with a suit of 
apparel and his victuals" (Judg. 17: 10), it was little enough 
that the only daughter of a respectable family of somewhat re- 
duced circumstances, should have more than one or two maid- 
servants to carry with her, when going to be presented to her 
husband, and he very rich. 

24: 62 — 67. Isaac's devotions, he maeeies eebekah. (1857 b. c.) 

62 And Isaac came from the way of Beer-lahairoi* ; for he dwelt 
in the land of the South. 

63 And Isaac went out to meditate in the field at the eventide : 
and he lifted up his eyes, and saw, and, behold, there were camels 
coming. 

64 And Rebekah lifted up her eyes, and when she saw Isaac, she 
alighted from the camel. 

65 And she said unto the servant, What man is this that walketh 
in the field to meet us? And the servant said, It is my master: and 
she took her veil, and covered herself. 

66 And the servant told Isaac all the things that he had done. 

67 And Isaac brought her into his mother Sarah's tent, and took 
Rebekah, and she became his wife ; and he loved her : and Isaac was 
comforted after his mother's death. 

[*M. S. V., the Well of the Living-One-who-seeth-me.] 

At this time Abraham resided in Beersheba, in the midst of 
his delightful grove; — his residence probably for nearly seventy 
years before his death. He seems to have had his home there in 
all these years, after the expulsion of Hagar and her son, with 
occasional visits to Hebron and other places. The camel carries 



286 GENESIS 

a burden of 800 to 1000 pounds, at the rate of 30 miles a 
day. The ten camels of Abraham, which came loaded, returned 
almost empty, and the steward would naturally hasten their 
pace, to arrive at the encampment as soon as possible. In twelve 
or fifteen days they would easily travel the 500 miles of distance 
between Haran and Beersheba. Comparing vr. 62 with ch. 25: 11, 
it seems certain that Isaac was living apart from his father, 
near to the Well of the-Living-One-who-seeth-me. If the word 
"dwelt" indicates permanent abode in the latter case, then it 
ought to indicate it in the former also, since it is not the 
word for sojourning, or temporary abode. And although Beersheba 
was "in the land of the South" (as was also the site of that 
well), nevertheless the form of vr. 62 indicates that the well 
was at some distance from Beersheba, where Abraham resided; 
and still farther to the south or S. W. "We have seen in the 
former chapter that Sarah died at Hebron, while Abraham was 
probably at Beersheba (see comment on ch. 23: 2), looking after 
his interests there. If in this we are right, it is still easier 
to see how Isaac should "dwell" (with a part of the immense 
cattle interests of Abraham) at the site of the Well of the-Living- 
One-who-seeth-me, a day or two's journey perhaps to the south 
or S. W. of Beersheba, while his father continued his tranquil 
abode at that place. As he lived 35 years after the marriage 
of Isaac, and his was a vigorous and "good old age," there was 
nothing to hinder Isaac's withdrawing from the neighborhood 
of his mother's empty tent, the sight of which at every moment 
would renew the grief of his tender heart (vr. 67), taking care 
of the varied interests of his vast estate, near to the well of 
Hagar. 

Isaac, then, was "dwelling" there. But as the distance was not 
great between the two places, and as he was in expectation of 
the arrival of his future wife, he would naturally go and re- 
turn with frequency. In verse 62, as I understand it, it is said 
that Isaac had returned from the well whither he had gone a 
little before (that being the place of his abode), and he had 
gone out into the field in the evening to meditate, or pray, 
when lifting up his eyes, he saw that lo! the camels were 
coming with their precious burden. The English Version and 
the Revision say: "And Isaac came from the way of the well." 
Valera says that "Isaac was coming from the well." Scio and 
Amat, following the Vulgate, say that "at the time Isaac was 
taking a walk in the road leading to the well." The Jewish 
Version of Isaac Leeser says that "Isaac came from a walk to 
the well," etc., implying that it was very near. The Modern 



CHAPTER 24: 62—67 287 

Spanish Version says that "Isaac had returned from the well, 
etc.; for he dwelt (— was dwelling) in the land of the South." 
The Hebrew text says simply: "And Isaac came from going to 
the well" — it was perhaps a two days' journey; which suggests 
the idea that, although he resided to the south of Beersheba, 
near to the well of Hagar, he was then on a visit to his father, 
and had just been to the well and returned; when, having gone 
out into the field to meditate and pray, on an occasion so im- 
portant for him, he lifted up his eyes and saw that the camels 
were coming. 

This instance of Isaac's devotions (a thing which we observe 
here for the first time in Holy Scripture) is worthy of all praise 
and imitation. The hour — the close of the day, is one which 
especially invites to meditation on divine things and secret 
prayer; and the place, "t.he field" (or country), was favorable 
to that expansion of soul which is an aid to the same purpose. 
Jesus recommends to us "the closet" with shut doors {Gr. locked, 
Matt. 6:6), as the place which is ordinarily most convenient 
for secret prayer; although he himself frequently sought the 
country, or the mountain, when it was practicable for him to 
do so. Mark 1: 35; Luke 6: 12. Those who have tried the 
plan of Isaac (for we suppose that it was his custom), will 
have found that every step taken toward the place of re- 
tirement, is a step nearer to God, and prepares the spirit for the 
act of drawing near to him in prayer. 

But Isaac was not the only one who lifted up his eyes; for 
he had hardly begun to walk toward the coming caravan, when 
Rebekah also lifted up her eyes, and seeing a man on foot, who 
was crossing the field, or open country, coming toward them, 
and learning from the servant of Abraham who he was, she 
dismounted from her camel and covered herself, not only her 
face, but her entire person, with the Oriental veil. It is evident 
that till then she had been traveling among those of her com- 
pany with uncovered face; and she dismounted from the camel, 
because, as in the East the woman occupies a position of inferior- 
ity, it would have been quite improper for her to go riding on her 
camel to meet her future husband. Undoubtedly all the company 
did the same thing, and walked to meet their young master. The 
servant then told Isaac of all that had happened. It is in con- 
formity with Biblical usage that the name of Abraham is not 
mentioned in this part of the history. The servant undoubtedly 
gave to him an account of how he had fulfilled the sworn 
commission he had confided to him, although nothing is said 
about it; and Abraham doubtless gave a hearty welcome to 



288 GENESIS 

his new daughter; but it would have been contrary to the 
Oriental style of things to say anything about that. Compare 
the meeting of Moses with his father-in-law, and his wife, and 
two sons, in Ex. 18: 2 — 12. But "Isaac brought Rebekah into 
his mother Sarah's tent, which had been unoccupied for three 
years (ch. 17:17; 23:1; 25:20); and he took Rebekah, and 
she became his wife, and he loved her: and Isaac was comforted 
after the death of his mother." Such is the simple story of 
the marriage of Isaac; and the declaration that "he loved her" 
is by no means superfluous; for, according to our usages, the 
man ought to love before he marries; but according to the cus- 
toms of the Orient, Isaac did not even see the face of Rebekah 
until he had carried her into the tent of his mother; and he 
might well have been disappointed (as it happened with Jacob, 
ch. 29: 25 — 31); something which is necessarily frequent among 
those peoples, where the man does not usually become acquainted 
with his wife until after they are married. Happy, therefore, 
was this marriage, of which we are told that "he took her, 
and she became his wife, and he loved her." So well did he 
love her, that never in his long life, did he take another wife; 
and such doubtless would have been the case with Jacob and 
his much-loved Rachel, if it had not been for the cruel deception 
practiced upon him by the rascally Laban. 

[Note 24. — On Marriage. After the marriage celebrated in 
Eden, when Jehovah himself presented to Adam his wife, this 
is the first account of a marriage that we have in the Bible; 
and in the one case it was as entirely without ceremony as in 
the other: "And Isaac brought her into his mother's tent, and 
he took Rebekah, and she became his wife; and he loved her." 
I pay no regard to the case of Hagar and Keturah, for they were 
concubines, or secondary wives, and could not in any sense 
compete in character and condition with a legitimate and proper 
wife. When Jacob married the daughter of Laban, "Laban 
gathered together all the men of the place, and made a feast" 
(ch. 29: 22); but so utterly without ceremony and exchange of 
engagements was this marriage, that in the evening, or night, 
Laban put Leah in the place of Rachel, for whom Jacob had 
served him like a slave during seven long years. But in the 
case of Isaac, it does not appear that there was even a feast, 
or gathering of Abraham's encampment, nor a formal con- 
tract in his presence; but Isaac, without further delay, installed 
Rebekah in his mother's tent, and with this, and nothing more, 
she was known and recognized as his wife. 

This is a point of the greatest importance. According to the 



CHAPTER 24: 62—67 289 

law of God and the teaching of the Bible, both in the New and 
Old Testaments, marriage consists neither in sacrament, nor 
in rite, nor in any ceremony; nor does it derive its legitimacy 
from any of these things; it is rather the frank and open union 
of one man and one woman in indissoluble and inviolable bonds; 
the form and ceremony are the thing of least importance. In 
Christian lands there are laws to regulate marriage, and the 
Christian Church has rites and ceremonies suitable to the occa- 
sion; and no Christian minister ought ever to marry any one 
contrary to the civil laws established to regulate the relation. 
But before God, marriage is something which antedates all civil 
statutes, and all ecclesiastical ceremonies and usages; and sexual 
unions contrary to the rule which the Creator established, are 
declared by Christ, our final Judge, to be a sin and a crime. In 
the Bible we do not find a word about legitimate and illegitimate 
marriages, outside of the degrees of consanguinity and affinity 
within which all sexual relations came to be crimes punishable 
by the magistrate. Lev. 18: 6 — 18. In subsequent times we do 
read of the marriage covenant (see Prov. 2: 17; Ezek. 16: 8; 
Mai. 2: 10), as was natural and necessary with the lapse of time 
and the advances made in the civil and social state of the people. 
But the Bible treats all kinds of marriage as valid and good, 
and lays upon all married people alike the obligation to perform 
sacredly its duties and fulfil its vows. Christ and his apostles, 
and the Christian Church for three or four centuries, recognized 
every form of marriage, whether of Jews or Samaritans (John 
2: 1; 4: 17), whether of Greeks or Romans, whether of pagans 
or Christians (1 Cor. 7: 12, 13, 28 — 40); and it never required 
that the parties should be re-married when they entered the 
Christian fold, in order to give it validity; but only that the 
obligations of their previous marriage be sacredly observed and 
fulfilled, as became Christian people. 

For this reason both fornication and adultery are so great 
sins in the sight of God; because, above and beyond their own 
moral turpitude, they are a complete prostitution of the marriage 
relation, instituted (1) for the honest and chaste procreation 
of children; (2) for their education and training for good and 
not for evil; and (3) in order that the clean and honorable 
family may serve as the secure basis and the fruitful seed-plot 
for the State and for the Church of God. "Let marriage be 
honorable in all, and the (conjugal) bed be undefiled; for forni- 
cators (on the one hand) and adulterers (on the other) God will 
judge." (M. S. V.) Heb. 13: 4.] 

[In the days of Christ, polygamy would seem, as already said, 



'290 GENESIS 

to have been completely, or practically, superseded by the more 
convenient system of free and easy divorce and remarriage; — a 
condition of things on which some of our Western States seem 
to be rapidly verging. We do not ever find the apostles con- 
fronted or embarrassed with the question of plural marriages, in 
the admission of members to the Christian Church; — a question 
that is so difficult of management for our missionaries in all 
pagan and Mohammedan lands. Bingham's Ecclesiastical An- 
tiquities (Book XVI, Ch. 11, Sec. 5) states that "there was never 
a'ny law to authorize polygamy in the Roman Empire," and both 
custom and public sentiment were against it. The 8 chaff -Herzog 
Encyclopedia (article "Marriage") speaks to the same effect: "all 
the peoples of the West, of a higher civilization discarded it." 
There was therefore no need for a positive prohibition of polygamy 
in the Christian Church, since it "faded out of manners without 
legislation" ; as the same article says. 

But among the Jews, and still more among Gentiles, prevailed 
the custom, which our Lord denounces, of putting away one ivife 
and taking another; — the Jews by simply writing a "bill of 
divorcement" and giving it to the woman; the Gentiles without 
even that formality. A missionary from that country has re- 
cently told the writer that even in progressive Japan, which has 
imitated so many of our laws and usages, when a man gets tired 
of his wife, he simply says to her "GO!" and she goes! Among 
the multitude of "amanceoados" found in Roman Catholic lands, 
it is the man generally who goes, and leaves the woman with the 
care of the children. What has the Gospel done for us! 

This explains the true meaning of the phrases "the husband of 
one wife," and "the wife of one husband," which occur re- 
peatedly in Paul's writings (Gr., "the man of one woman" "the 
woman of one man") . Persons thus ill-mated (of whom both Jewish 
and Gentile lands were full), might become private members of the 
church, and be received to Christian fellowship, when converted 
to Christianity; out they could not hold any office in the church. 
Out of the 3,000 converted and baptized on the day of Pentecost, 
there might easily have been 100 such, if not more. This was 
no toleration of polygamy (which did not in fact exist), as some 
commentators strangely imagine, from ignorance of a usage so 
different from our own; but all missionaries to Roman Catholic 
countries understand it to their sorrow. See foot-note on Aman- 
cebamiento. Pp. 35, 36. 

This state of things is due primarily and chiefly to the in- 
fluence, direct and indirect, of the so-called "Sacrament of 
Marriage," and the allied influences which have formed the 



CHAPTER 25 : 1—4 291 

character and mode of life of those peoples; and now that custom 
has made it practically a social law, it is next to impossible to 
shake it off, even in some Mexican States where the Govern- 
ment offers to all civil marriage free of charge. See El Faro, 
for May 15, 1905. And no wonder, when their Church teaches 
that Civil Marriage is only another form of "Amancebamiento /" 
And that is not the worst of it. The Roman Catholic doctrine 
that no marriage but her own is legitimate, — none but the "sacra- 
ment" celebrated by a Roman Catholic priest, degrades Protestant 
Marriage, as well as Civil Marriage, to the same level! so that 
according to the teachings of that Church, which would pose 
as the sole guardian of the sanctity of marriage, five-sixths of 
the people of Great Britain, with King Edward VII at their head, 
and nine-tenths of the people of the United States, with President 
Roosevelt at their head, are living in a state of legalized Con- 
cubinage, and their children are born out of wedlock! Her 
"amancebados" certainly find themselves in the best of com- 
pany! By such wickedly absurd teaching, that Church makes 
the extremes meet, and degrades the standard of public and 
private morality, while pretending to exalt it! — Tr.] 

CHAPTER XXV. 

VRS. 1 — 4. ANOTHER WIFE WHOM ABRAHAM HAD TAKEN. (Of Un- 
certain date.) 

1 And Abraham took another wife,* and her name was Keturah. 

2 And she bare him Zimran, and Jokshan, and Medan, and Midian, 
and Ishbak, and Shuah. 

3 And Jokshan begat Sheba, and Dedan. And the sons of Dedan 
were Asshurim, and Letushim, and Leummim. 

4 And the sons of Midian : Ephah, and Epher, and Hanoch, and 
Abida, and Eldaah. All these were the children of Keturah. 

[*Mod. Span. Ver., But Abraham had taken another wife.] 

More than three hundred and fifty years ago, Calvin called 
attention, in his commentary, to the fact that this passage ought 
to be translated (as it is in the Modern Spanish Version) : 
"Abraham had taken another wife"; but this has been of little 
benefit to most translators and commentators from that day 
to this, who continue to translate the words so as to give to 
understand that after the death of Sarah, and after the marriage 
of Isaac, Abraham, an old man of 140 years, married again, 
and had by this marriage six sons more. I find it hard to 
account for a translation so inopportune, erroneous and mislead- 
ing as this. "Where, then, was the singular grace and favor of 
God, in a man of a hundred years old having a son, if forty 



292 GENESIS 

years later (and even fifty years), he had consecutively six 
sons more, hy another new wife? Without doubt Moses has 
cause (and Paul likewise), to complain of his translators. 

It is altogether idle to say that such is the simple and correct 
translation of the Hebrew words; for in Hebrew the verbs 
have no moods or tenses, in our use of the terms; and its two 
so-called tenses, the past and future, or more properly, the per- 
fect and imperfect, have to do duty for the eighteen or twenty 
forms of the regular Spanish verb, in the Indicative and Sub- 
junctive moods, which include the Potential as found in English. 
Including auxiliary forms, we have not less than twenty or twenty- 
five different temporal forms of every verb, where the Hebrew 
has but two; and it becomes the duty of the translator to vary 
the shadings of the thought, according as every several case 
may require. This the translator knows, but the ordinary 
reader does not know; and therefore it is not fair to him to 
give him the Hebrew form and leave him to do the shading for 
himself. The Hebrew, or Jew, of ancient and modern times 
makes the adjustments unconsciously, varying the thought ac- 
cording to the conditions of the case; because he has the habit 
of thinking in these forms, so different from our own. "He 
took," "He has taken," "He had taken," is all one in Hebrew; 
but in our more exact forms of speech it is very different. To 
say therefore, after relating the death of Sarah and the mar- 
riage of Isaac: "And Abraham took another wife, who bore him 
six children more," is not a correct translation, if the Bible it- 
self really makes manifest (as it does in vr. 6 of this same 
chapter) that all this had taken place long before. Amat, with 
much propriety says: "Abraham had also taken another wife, 
named Keturah, who bore him Zamram," etc. Keturah was prob- 
ably a woman of his own encampment, one of his own people; 
a woman who could not aspire to a condition superior to that 
of Hagar, Sarai's servant, and mother of Ishmael. It is morally 
impossible that Abraham, after sending to Haran to get a wife 
for Isaac (ch. 24: 1 — 4), should himself marry a Canaanitish 
woman, even though she were the daughter of a prince; — 
such an one as might aspire to the standing of a principal 
wife. 

The proof that he had taken her before the death of Sarah, 
is found in the fact that the only two times, besides this, in 
which the Bible speaks of her, she is expressly called the "con- 
cubine of Abraham." Vr. 6; 1 Chron. 1: 32. If he had taken 
her after the death of Sarah, having separated himself from 
Hagar 35 years before, Keturah would not have been his con- 



CHAPTER 25: 1—4 293 

cubine, but his legitimate and only wife. This argument does 
not admit of reply. The Mosaic use of the word "concubine" 
is clearly determined in ch. 35: 22, where Bilhah, maid-servant of 
Rachel, is called the "concubine" of Jacob. 

Another proof that he had taken her before the birth of 
Isaac, is found in the fact that not only had Abraham regarded 
it as out of all ordinary possibility "that a son should be born 
to a man a hundred years old" (ch. 17: 17), but the New Testa- 
ment tells us by that "his body was now as good as dead" (Rom. 
4: 19; Heb. 11: 12) and that only by the interposition of a divine 
power could the promise of the human redemption be realized 
(ch. 18: 14); on which circumstance is based the extraordinary 
character of the faith of Abraham, "who against hope believed 
in hope, that he might become the father of many nations." Rom. 
4: 18. Now this would be worse than an extravagance, if, after 
the death of Sarah, he should marry again, and have by this 
marriage six sons, without any divine promise, and in a purely 
natural way. It is futile to allege that that stupendous act 
of faith, at 99 years of age so rejuvenated "his body then as 
good as dead," that he could begin to have another new family 
40 or 50 years later. The Bible does not deal in foolish and 
ridiculous statements. God would take good care that, when 
by a singular favor of his, and by the extraordinary faith of 
Abraham, a child was granted to a man a hundred years old, 
this same man should not have half a dozen children in a 
purely natural way at the age of 140 or 150 years! The error, 
which is not a small one, belongs to the translation, and not to 
the text. 

Another proof is found in the circumstance related in verse 6, 
that the six sons of Keturah were not boys, nor inexperienced 
youths, when "Abraham gave them gifts, and sent them away 
from Isaac, eastward, into the east country," but on the con- 
trary were men of age and experience, well capable of manag- 
ing their affairs in the world. It is therefore probable and 
almost certain that they were older than Isaac; and it is 
probable, as has already been said, that Abraham had divided 
to them their respective portions of his estate, and had sent them 
far away, before Isaac was married. 

The reason for this late mention of Keturah and her sons 
appears to be this: When Moses was bringing the history of 
Abraham to a close, and telling what disposal he made of his 
immense estate, he had naturally to mention his other sons, 
to whom he divided a worthy portion of his goods, and before 
his death sent them away from Isaac, his son and heir; and 



294 GENESIS 

it is to be believed that he sent them away long before his 
death; so long before, that Isaac would have no question or 
dispute with any of them after the death of his father. It seems 
plain that only on this account does he mention at all, so much 
out of place, Keturah and her six sons. 

Of none of these six sons of Keturah have we any historical 
notice whatever, with the exception of Midian; of whom, or 
rather of his descendants, we have frequent mention in the 
history of Israel, until the end of the book of Judges. Moses 
married a Midianitess, the daughter of Jethro, priest and prince 
of Midian. Aside from this, the Midianites always present them- 
selves in Bible history as the treacherous and implacable enemies 
of Israel. 

25: 5, 6. ABRAHAM DISPOSES OF HIS ESTATE BEFORE HIS DEATH. 

(Of uncertain date.) 

5 And Abraham gave all that he had unto Isaac. 

6 But unto the sons of the concubines, that Abraham had, Abra- 
ham gave gifts ; and he sent them away from Isaac his son, while he 
yet lived, eastward, unto the east country. 

There is nothing in the history, or in the uses of the Orientals 
to lead us to suppose that all this was done in the same day, 
or the same year. In the parable of the Prodigal Son, the younger 
said one day, to his own sorrow: "Father give me the portion 
of goods which falleth to me. And he divided unto them his 
living" (Luke 15: 12); not equally, of course; for in every such 
case a double portion fell to the first-born (Deut. 21: 17); but 
he divided his estate between them. The younger son took what 
was his, and, after converting it into money, went away 
with it; and the rest belonged to the elder son; with regard to 
which the father did not hesitate to say: "All that I have is 
thine." Luke 15: 12, 31. It is in this way that we ought to 
understand these two verses. Beginning with Ishmael, whom 
he sent far away from Isaac first, it i^ probable that he sent 
them all away from him successively (dividing to each such a 
portion of his goods as appertained to them) in the course of 
many years, and at the time that their age and other circum- 
stances made most opportune; and what was left he gave it 
all to Isaac. We shall need to forget the parable of the Prodigal 
Son in order to suppose that Abraham would need treat the sons 
of his concubines with great niggardliness in order to "give all he 
had to Isaac." 

In this matter of disposing of his estate long before his death, 
and seeing to it himself that there were no disputes and 



CHAPTER 25: 7—11 295 

wranglings between his sons about the division of the property, 
Abraham has given us a laudable example and worthy of univer- 
sal imitation. The last will and testament of dead men with 
lamentable frequency causes great heart-burnings and even open 
dissensions among their children; and it often happens that 
the disposal they make of their property is altogether frustrated, 
because they lacked the willingness or the valor to dispose of 
their estate during their life-time, and be the executors of their 
own testamentary will. If it be little that one possesses, the 
case is less urgent; but when the estate is large, an honorable 
and just disposal of it during the lifetime of the owner, when 
he is able himself to place such arrangement upon a good and 
secure footing, would give less occupation to the lawyers, but in 
exchange, would secure the tranquillity of the family, and the 
security of the legacies made. It is a proof of much indolence 
or much cowardice on the part of those fathers who leave it till 
after their death for their children and heirs to come to a knowl- 
edge of the partialities and prejudices which lodged in their 
hearts; and sometimes their children have occasion to curse 
their memory, instead of blessing it. Nothing of the sort did 
Abraham do. Doubtless it cost him much trouble and difficulty 
to duly weigh the natural claims of Ishmael and the six sons 
of Keturah; but if he had not done so, it would have been 
a sad day for the pacific and timid Isaac, when once his father 
slept in death, and the seven half-brothers entered into dis- 
putes with him over the share of the patrimony which fell 
severally to them. The fact that there were no such disputes 
is the best guaranty that Abraham dealt justly and honorably 
with them all. 

It is not a little singular that all the sons of Abraham, except 
Isaac, were fond of the life of the desert; and so their father 
sent them toward the east of Beersheba into the east country — 
into the great desert of Arabia, which lay between the land 
of Israel and the river Euphrates. In the days of Moses we 
find the Midianites in the peninsula of Mount Sinai and to 
the east 'of the Elanitic Gulf of the Red Sea; we find them 
likewise mingled with the Moabites in their wars against Israel. 
Num. 23: 7; 25: 1, 2, 17, 18; 31: 2, 3. Vr. 18 informs us that 
the descendants of Ishmael were scattered from Havilah, near 
the Persian Gulf, unto Shur, at the entrance of Egypt, a dis- 
tance of 1000 miles. 

25: 7 — 11. THE DEATH OP ABEAHAM. (1822 B. C.) 

7 And these are the days of the years of Abraham's life which 
he lived, a hundred threescore and fifteen years. 



296 GENESIS 

8 And Abraham gave up the ghost, and died in a good old age, 
an old man, and full of years, and was gathered to his people. 

9 And Isaac and Ishmael his sons buried him in the cave of Mach- 
pelah, in the field of Ephron the son of Zohar the Hittite, which is 
before Mamre ; 

10 the field which Abraham purchased of the children of Heth : 
there was Abraham buried, and Sarah his wife. 

11 And it came to pass after the death of Abraham, that God 
blessed Isaac his son : and Isaac dwelt by Beer-lahai-roi.* 

[* = The Well' of the Living-One-who-seeth-me.] 

Abraham lived 35 years after the marriage of Isaac, and prob- 
ably in his beloved Beersheba, where he had his well, or his 
wells, and his grove, which he had planted 70 years before his 
death. Although it is not to be supposed that the South land 
was then as denuded of trees as it is now, a grove such as 
Abraham planted in Beersheba (ch. 21: 33), would have as 
powerful an attraction for him as the oak-grove of Mamre had 
in former years. Perhaps something had happened at Mamre 
which caused him so completely to substitute the grove of Beer- 
sheba for the oaks of Mamre. 

"Abraham gave up the ghost (Heb. expired=breathed his last) 
and died in a good old age, an old man, and full of years, and 
was gathered to his people" (Heb. peoples) ; — a beautiful sum- 
ming up of a life and a death in which everything happened 
at its proper season. We infer from this, that in contrast with 
the old age of Isaac and of Jacob, Abraham passed his in good 
health, honored and esteemed by all his neighbors, beloved and 
venerated by all his own people. "Pull of years" means to 
say that he had them both good and in abundant measure, and 
did not desire any more; according to the beautiful expression of 
Eliphaz the Temanite: 

"Thou shalt come to thy grave in a full age, 

like as a shock of grain cometh in its season." Job 5: 25. 
Only in the case of Gideon (Judg. 8: 32), and of David (1 Chron. 
29: 28) do we find repeated this description of the prosperous 
old age of Abraham, — though not in the identical words. 

The phrase "he was gathered to his peoples" is extremely in- 
teresting; for, explain it as you will, it reveals to us with clear- 
ness and certainty the hope of immortality which was cherished 
in the ancient times. Observe the movement and progression in- 
dicated: "He breathed out (his last breath); and he died; and 
was gathered to his peoples; and they buried him"; — four things 
closely related but distinct: like those words of Jesus: "And 
the beggar died, and was carried by angels into Abraham's 
bosom; the rich man also died, and was buried, and in hell (Or. 
Hades=among the dead) he lifted up his eyes being in tor- 



CHAPTER 25: 7—11 297 

ments." Luke 16: 22, 23. In both cases this expresses not 
what would happen after the resurrection, but in the time in- 
termediate between death and the resurrection. Let us be 
careful, however, not to infer that "was gathered to his peo- 
ples" means to say he was received into the congregation of 
the blessed. Let us be just and accurate in our interpretations 
of Scripture. The same phrase is used of Ishmael also (vr. 17), 
and it would be hazardous to draw the inference that Ishmael 
is also in the congregation of the blessed, waiting for the day 
of the resurrection and the promised immortality. Of Isaac 
and Jacob, of Moses and Aaron also, and of these alone, is used 
the same phrase; which occurs only in the five Books of Moses. 
In Judg. 2: 10, the corresponding phrase "were gathered to their 
fathers" is used with reference to the entire generation that 
entered Canaan, without even a thought of putting them all in 
glory. This phrase does not occur any more in the Bible; but 
the equivalent phrase (used also of Moses, in Deut. 31: 16), 
"slept with his fathers" (or more correctly, "lay down with his 
fathers," — for the death of the wicked is not called a sleep), 
is used with regard not only to David and Jehoshaphat, and 
Hezekiah, and Josiah, but of Solomon also (whose case is doubt- 
ful to say the least — sensualist that he was, 1 Kings 11: 3), and 
of Rehoboam, and Abijah, and Jehu, and such monsters of 
iniquity as Ahaz and Ahab. It is clear, therefore, that the 
phrase in neither of its three forms has reference to the rest 
of the blessed; but certainly it speaks of the future existence of 
souls separate from the body; as the dead Samuel said to Saul — 
words which froze his soul: "And tomorrow thou and thy sons 
shalt be with me!" (1 Sam. 28: 19); without meaning to say 
they would be in heaven, or at rest, or "in hell," or anything of 
the kind; or to affirm, on the other hand, that the souls of the 
righteous and the wicked were mingled together in one vast 
receptacle, or common place of abode. Nothing is said of 
receptacle, or place of abode, one way or the other; but rather 
of condition, or state; — "Ye shall be with me," among the dead; 
— a state or condition of conscious and sentient being, which 
not only for the ancients, but for ourselves, is an unfathomable 
and inexplicable mystery, which none of us will be able to 
understand, till we enter into it and ascertain, each for himself, 
what that state of disembodied being really is. Neither reason 
nor Scripture gives us to understand (much as we may think 
it), that a disembodied soul resembles an angelic being. See 
Luke 20: 35, 36. Of that abnormal condition, totally foreign to 
man's nature as God designed and made him, Calvin says: 



298 GENESIS 

"The wonderful counsel of God devised a middle state; that, 
without life, we might live in death." No man ever spoke more 
wisely of what we understand so little. Institutes, Book III, Ch. 
25, Sec. 9. See Note 27, on "Sheol," or "Hades," with comments 
on chs. 25: 8 and 42: 38. 

It is also of interest to know that his two sons, Isaac and 
Ishmael (the precedence being given to Isaac) buried him. 
Isaac was at that time 75 years old, and Ishmael 89. Isaac 
was three years old when Ishmael and his mother were sent 
away from the encampment of Abraham, and we have no notice 
of the two having met again in the intervening space of 72 
years; yet as we are positively sure that Ishmael was not dis- 
inherited, but obtained his honorable share among the sons 
of his father's two concubines (vr. 6), it is positively certain 
that during these 72 years he returned, perhaps repeatedly, to the 
paternal home to receive the portion of the inheritance that 
came to him. It is to be believed that during that time he 
had become the head of a powerful tribe of nomads of the 
desert, not only descendants of his own, but his servants and 
dependents (comp. ch. 14: 14), and of others likewise, associated 
with him as- a valiant and expert captain. Twice we are told 
that he had for his sons "twelve princes," heads of tribes; 
and twelve princes (ch. 17: 20; 25: 16) could not be born of any 
but a famous and powerful father, and would necessarily gather 
their tribes largely from the surrounding peoples. It is there- 
fore to be supposed that at 89 years of age, at the burial of 
his father, he would present himself in Hebron with such ac- 
companiment and simple magnificence (which the Arabs dearly 
love) as corresponded with his quality and condition. This 
pacific meeting of the two half-brothers, on an occasion so 
tender and interesting, is also a guaranty that Ishmael was 
satisfied with the treatment he had received from his father, 
and with the part of the estate which had been given him; other- 
wise it would have been easy for him to endanger the interests 
of Isaac. 

On leaving at this point the history of Abraham, let us re- 
member: 

1st. That he was a convert from idolatry; he abandoned the 
religion of his country and of his father (see comments on chs. 
12: 1; 31: 53), like the Thessalonians of whom Paul said "Ye 
turned unto God from idols, to serve the living and true God." 
1 Thes. 1: 9. And this is an example worthy of the imitation 
of those who ought to abandon the idolatries and superstitions 
of Romanism, to embrace and propagate the true religion of the 



CHAPTER 25: 7—11 299 

true God. And this being so, the sooner they abandon the errors 
of their fathers the better. The most brutish pagans make 
the same argument as do the Romanists, to persist in the false 
worship of their fathers, without perceiving the harm and loss 
that in a thousand ways it brings to them, and to their children, 
and to their country. 

2nd. Of all converts Abraham was the most zealous and faith- 
ful; and in his own person he answers the cavilings of ignorant 
and prejudiced irreligious men, who claim that those who change 
their religion are not sincere. The world today is full of the 
precious fruits of that change of religion which Abraham made; 
and all modern nations are no less full of the precious fruit 
of the change of religion which the Reformers and the nations 
of Northern Europe made in the 16th century.* 

3rd. His faith in the new God he had found, or rather, who 
had found him (ch. 18: 19; Gal. 4:9), was proof against 
every solicitation and assault; and God took care to prove and 
refine it in every possible way. Thus we also ought to "walk 
in the steps of the faith of our father Abraham," and not be 
cast down on account of the trials through which our God leads 
us, for the same purpose. 

Vr. 11 informs us that "the blessing of Abraham" passed 

♦Where would England be today, and Scotland, and Germany, and 
Holland, and Denmark, and Norway and Sweden, and British America, 
and the United States, and Australia, and other Protestant countries, if 
Jn the 16th century our fathers had burned Bibles and those who read 
them, to bow the neck under the galling yoke of the Romish priesthood ; 
as Spain did? And per contra, where would the great Spain, on whose 
empire the sun once never set, be today, and Portugal, and Italy, and Aus- 
tria, and Mexico, and South America, had their fathers broken the yoke 
of priests, in the 16th century, to accept instead the light and easy yoke 
of Christ, and say with Jesus: "Call no man your (spiritual) father on 
the earth; for one (only) is your Father, ivho is in heaven" (Matt. 23 : 9) ; 
and with Paul : "Ye are bought with a price ; be not ye the servants of 
men!" 1 Cor. 7:3. The enterprise, and intelligence, and liberties of 
France, above all the other Roman Catholic lands, she owes chiefly to 
Protestantism ; one-third of her people having been Protestant in the 
17th century ; who held their own for more than a century against all 
the persecuting might of Rome, backed by the despotic power of treacher- 
ous kings. The fickleness, and licentiousness, and infidelity, and atheism, 
In which she excels other Roman Catholic peoples, she owes largely to 
the fact that that "one-third," which might soon have become two-thirds, 
was drowned in rivers of its own blood, treacherously and basely shed, 
for their religion's sake. What would "Beautiful France" be today, 
had she taken as her beau-ideal of a man among men her own chivalrous 
and God-fearing Coligny ; and, accepting God's word as her only rule of 
faith and duty, adopted as her own the heaven-approved maxim "That 
every man should bear rule in his own house" (Esth. 1: 22), and neither 
priest nor preacher cross his threshold without his consent? — Tr. 



300 GENESIS 

straight on to Isaac, and that the death of Abraham caused 
no interruption in the descent of the blessings of the covenant. 
"He remembereth his covenant forever." Ps. Ill: 5. 



25: 12 — 18. memoirs of ishmael. (1911 — 1773 b. c.) 

12 Now these are the generations of Ishmael, Abraham's son, 
whom Hagar the Egyptian, Sarah's handmaid, bare unto Abraham : 

13 and these are the names of the sons of Ishmael, by their names, 
according to their generations : the first-born of Ishmael, Nebaioth ; 
and Kedar, and Abdeel, and Mibsam, 

14 and Mishma, and Dumah, and Massa, 

15 Hadad, and Tema, Jetur, Naphish, and Kedemah : 

16 these are the sons of Ishmael, and these are their names, by 
their villages, and by their encampments ; twelve princes according to 
their nations. 

17 And these are the years of the life of Ishmael, a hundred and 
thirty and seven years : and he gave up the ghost and died, and was 
gathered unto his people. 

18 And they dwelt from Havilah unto Shur that is before Egypt, 
as thou goest toward Assyria : he abode over against all his brethren. 

We have already observed (ch. 2: 4) that in the technical phrase 

"these are the generations of " which occurs eleven times 

in the book of Genesis, the word "generations" does not signify 
ordinarily a genealogical table, but more commonly is equivalent 
to "memoirs;" or brief family history; and this case is not an 
exception; for the names which follow do not form a genealogical 
table, but are simply the names of the twelve sons of Ishmael, 
who were the heads of tribes, or princes of nomadic peoples, ac- 
cording to the promise of Jehovah to Abraham with respect to 
Ishmael: "Twelve princes shall he beget, and I will make of him a 
great nation." Ch. 17 : 20. It seems that the historian, having 
spoken in vr. 11 of the blessing of Jehovah which came upon 
Isaac after the death of his father, inserts here these memoirs of 
Ishmael, before continuing the history of Isaac, in order to record 
the fact that Jehovah did not forget his promise regarding Ish- 
mael. "These are the names of the sons of Ishmael by their 
names and according to their generations," does not signify suc- 
cessive generations; for they were all brothers and contempo- 
raries; but probably it means, as Gesenius says, "in the order of 
their birth." Verse 16 varies the phrase in this manner: 
"These are the sons of Ishmael, and these are their names, by 
their villages, and by their encampments; twelve princes accord- 
ing to their nations." It is not possible for us to locate these 
tribes of Ishmael; and as instead of cities and towns they had 
"villages and encampments," it would not be possible to deter- 
mine their boundaries or limits, being wandering tribes that had 
none. We have already seen (ch. 10: 7, 14, 26 — 29), that the de- 
scendants of Ham, of the family of Cush, and the descendants of 



CHAPTER 25: 12—18 301 

Shem, of the family of Joctan, established themselves in the 
richest and most delightful part of Arabia (called Arabia Felix), 
along the shore of the Red Sea, and of the Indian Ocean, as far 
as the Persian Gulf, and in the high lands of the interior; but vr. 
18 informs us that the Ishmaelitish tribes extended themselves 
"from Havilah [on the western coast of the Persian Gulf, as is 
supposed, near the mouths of the river Euphrates] into Shur"; 
on the Isthmus of Suez, at the entrance of Egypt; a distance of 
1000 miles, embracing all the north of Arabia and of the Peninsula 
of Mount Sinai. But 1 Sam. 15: 7 tells us that Saul smote the 
Amalekites "from Havilah as thou goest unto Shur, which is be- 
fore Egypt." This is essentially the same phrase that we have 
here, and yet Saul could not have gone anywhere near the desert 
of Arabia. Havilah is to be understood, in this case, of some 
point in the mountain country of Seir, and some maps have it in- 
dicated as on the west coast of the Gulf of Akabah, the Elanitic 
branch of the Red Sea, in the territory of the Amalekites. There 
are in the Bible four or five different regions that bear the name 
of Havilah. 

Of these twelve sons of Ishmael we know nothing more than 
their names; although to them, or to their descendants, called by 
the name of their respective fathers, we have several allusions in 
the Bible; as Nabaioth, Kedar, Duma, Tema, Jetur and Naphish. 

The years of the life of Ishmael were 137 — ten years more than 
the life of Sarah, 38 less than that of Abraham, 43 less than that 
of Isaac, and 10 less than that of Jacob; perhaps the dangers and 
exposures of his desert life shortened his days. As regards the 
phrase "he was gathered to his peoples," see comment on vr. 8 of 
this chapter. "When we consider that in the days of Abraham and 
Moses, the Egyptians and the Babylonians had their "doctrine of 
the dead" in a state of full development, as is shown by their 
books still existing, discovered in recent years, we see clearly 
that nothing less than a supernatural revelation and a constant 
superintendence of the divine Spirit could have deterred Abra- 
ham and Moses (who were perfectly acquainted with these doc- 
trines of the dead, having been educated, the one under the Baby- 
lonish system, and the other under the Egyptian), from com- 
municating even a trace of it to their people, as part of the rev- 
elation of Jehovah. And what would we do, if we found such 
fables in the religion of Abraham and the writings of Moses, and 
had to reconcile them with the teachings of Jesus Christ? No! 
the silence of the writings of Moses on such matters, relating to 
the dead, proves that the Spirit of God directed his mind and his 
pen; it could not otherwise have happened. 



302 GENESIS 

[If it should here occur to a hundred readers to ask: "Why- 
then did not God at once reveal the correct doctrine of the dead"? 
I reply, by asking, how many, and which, of the half-dozen or 
more "doctrines of the dead," prevailing in Christian countries, 
1900 years after Christ, are God-revealed, and how many, or how 
much of them, are man-devised? As I have remarked already 
(Translator's Note 1), (1) Luke 16: 9, 22—31; (2) Luke 23: 42, 
43; (illustrated by 2 Cor. 12: 2—4 and Rev. 2:1); (3) Acts 7: 
55—59; (4) 2 Cor. 5: 1, 6, 8; (5) Phil. 1: 21, 23; (6) 2 Tim. 4: 
6—8; (7) Heb. 11: 13, 39, 49; (8) Jude vr. 7; (9) Rev. 14: 13; — 
these nine passages (and perhaps Heb. 6: 12), cover all that Christ 
and his apostles teach us as to the place, the character and the 
present condition of disembodied souls, both holy and unholy. 
Rev. 7: 4 — 17 is not a vision of the blessedness and employment 
of disembodied souls, but is evidently a symbolic representation of 
redemption completed, perfected both in number and degree. Re- 
deemed souls, though in heaven, do not "reign in life," while yet 
death reigns over their mortal oodies; any more than Christ did, 
the three days he lay in Joseph's tomb. They wait "with Christ," 
while "he waits till his foes be made his footstool" (Heb. 10: 
13) — "waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our 
body." Rom. 8: 23. See Note 27, on Sheol, or Hades. Chapter 
37: 35. It is probable, I think, that no truthful and comprehen- 
sible revelation could be made to mortal man of that mysterious 
state of disembodied existence that follows immediately upon 
death, and that, therefore, the Bible has not attempted it; — in 
strongest contrast with all man-made religions. — Tr.] 

"The sons of Ishmael" represent here not only those who were 
his sons personally, but the tribes or nations who, according to 
the style of the Old Testament, bore the names of the fathers from 
whom they descended; speaking frequently of a tribe or a people 
as of a single individual. See Num. 20: 8; Judg. 11: 13, 17, 19. 
Verse 18 designates the vast bounds of the nomadic abode of the 
descendants of Ishmael. But in the matter of the limits of peo- 
ples, we ought always to bear in mind that the geography of the 
Bible and of the ancient nations (and even those of modern 
Europe, prior to the 16th century, or even after that date), was a 
thing much more vague and uncertain than in our day, in which 
we begin to know tolerably well the world in which we live. 

The words "as thou goest towards Assyria," in vr. 18, are dif- 
ficult, but they seem to be a technical phrase which signifies that 
leaving Egypt, and going in the direction of Assyria, one would 
pass through Shur. The words "He abode over against all his 
brethren," as found in the "American Standard Edition" of the 



CHAPTER 25: 19—23 303 

Revision, are rendered in the A. V. and the older Versions gen- 
erally: "He died {Heb. fell) in the presence of all his brethren." 
But in Biblical usage to fall does not mean to die, except when 
one falls in battle. Nor can it be understood in what sense it 
could be said that Ishmael died in the presence of all his brethren; 
and still less when it is remembered that it is not said of him 
individually, but as the father of twelve nations or tribes. The 
Revised Version renders it correctly, as also the Jewish Version 
of Isaac Leeser, and the Modern Spanish Version, "He abode 
(or dwelt) in the presence of all his brethren," understanding the 
Heb. "fell" to mean, the lot fell to him; according to the promise 
given to his mother before his birth (ch. 16: 12) : "And he shall 
dwell in the presence of all his brethren"; giving us to under- 
stand that he maintained himself on a firm footing, in dignity 
and independence, in the presence of the descendants of Isaac, 
and of the sons of Keturah. 



25: 19 — 23. memoies of isaac. (1897 — 1838 b. c.) 

19 And these are the generations of Isaac, Abraham's son: Abra- 
ham begat Isaac : 

20 and Isaac was forty years old when he took Rebekah, the 
daughter of Bethuel and Syrian of Paddanaram, the sister of Laban 
the Syrian, to be his wife. 

21 And Isaac entreated Jehovah for his wife, because she was 
barren : and Jehovah was entreated of him, and Rebekah his wife 
conceived. 

22 And the children struggled together within her ; and she said, 
If it be so, wherefore do I live? And she went to inquire of Jehovah. 

23 And Jehovah said unto her, Two nations are in thy womb, And 
two peoples shall be separated from thy bowels : And the one people 
shall be stronger than the other people ; And the elder shall serve the 
younger. 

Isaac was 40 years old at the time of his marriage, and his two 
sons were born to him when he was 60, — 20 years after his mar- 
riage. Abraham was 100 years old when Isaac was born, and 140 
at the time he married; he lived 35 years longer, dying at the age 
of 175; so that he lived until Esau and Jacob were 15 years of age. 
Rebekah was barren. It is remarkable how many mothers of 
notable Bible characters were barren; by divine arrangement, 
perhaps, in order to prove the faith of their parents — Sarah, 
Rebekah, Rachel, the mother of Sampson, Hannah the mother of 
Samuel, and Elizabeth the mother of John the Baptist. On this 
account Isaac and his wife were greatly disturbed and perplexed; 
and children were given to them in answer to special prayer. 
Doubtless in his prayers Isaac alleged the great promises given to 
Abraham and confirmed to himself. How could the promises be 
fulfilled to him and to all the nations of the earth, who were to 



304 GENESIS 

be blessed in Abraham and bis seed, if Isaac, the heir of the 
promise, was to remain "a dry tree"? Fortunately for him and 
Rebekah they did not repeat the error of Sarah and Abraham. 
Ch. 16: 2, 3. Instead of such a human expedient to give fulfilment 
to the divine promise, Isaac set himself to beseech God, who 
granted conception to Rebekah; in which we note the effects of 
pious education, training and culture. Well is it said in Ps. 127: 3: 

"Lo children are a heritage from Jehovah, 
and the fruit of the womb is his reward." 

So Isaac felt it to be when, after 20 years of patient waiting, his 
wife presented him with two sons. But is it less so when chil- 
dren are born in the natural order of things? I think not, and 
Christian people never should regard it as otherwise than a 
precious gift of God; a gift none the less estimable for being so 
ordinary; and I suppose that every mother feels it so when she 
embraces her first child. When the first child was born into this 
world, Eve exclaimed: "I have gotten a man by the favor of 
Jehovah." (M. S. V.) Gen. 4: 1. And shall it be esteemed less a 
favor in the case of other mothers, and other children, because 
less appreciated? When the desperate Rachel cried out passion- 
ately to Jacob: "Give me children, or else I die!" he replied: 
"Am I in God's stead, who hath withheld from thee the fruit of 
the womb?" Ch. 30: 1, 2. When Esau asked Jacob as to the 
numerous family which he had met on the way, he replied: "They 
are the children whom God hath graciously given to thy servant." 
Ch. 33: 5. 

The two nations that were to descend from her were throughout 
all their history the most uncompromising and bitterest of foes 
(Ezek. 35: 5), and would seem to have begun their contentions be- 
fore their birth. So distressing was the case, that Rebekah well- 
nigh repented of having besought the Lord for children, and ex- 
claimed: "If it was to be thus, why did I desire this?" (M. S. 
V.) The case seemed to her so extraordinary that she went to 
inquire of Jehovah. How she did this it is not given us to ascer- 
tain. It may be that it was in prayer; but the phrase "to con- 
sult" or "to inquire of Jehovah" has in the Bible the technical 
sense of consulting the oracle of God; and the manner in which 
this is described in 1 Sam. 9: 9, gives us to understand (although 
this is the first case of it that we find in the Bible) that it was a 
constant usage in the old times: "Beforetime in Israel, when a 
man went to inquire of God, thus he said: Come and let us go 
to the seer! for he that is now called a prophet was beforetimes 
called a seer." And as Abraham was still living in Beersheba, not 



CHAPTER 25: 24—28 305 

very far from the well of the Living-One-that-seeth-me, where 
Isaac resided, the words, "she went to inquire of Jehovah" in her 
perplexity, would naturally mean that she went to Beersheba 
to see Abraham himself; with regard to whom Jehovah had said 
to Abimelech: "He is a prophet, and shall pray for thee, that 
thou die not." Ch. 20: 7. Extremely interesting is this item of 
information given us here, that there were in those times ways 
and means by which individuals could communicate with God, 
as certain and reliable as those by which God communicated with 
men. It is also to be noted that the first example we have of this, 
is that of a woman; and the fact should not be lost sight of by 
women who, 2800 years after Rebekah, have occasion to consult 
God in the living oracles of his holy word — this being the only 
method we today have of consulting God, in humble prayer and 
entire dependence upon his Holy Spirit. 

The answer of the oracle is given in poetical form, as is usual in 
the Old Testament; and it gave her to understand that she had 
within her two nations, and that even from the bowels of their 
mother these two peoples would be in dissension; so that the 
struggles she felt within her presaged the incessant struggles 
there would be between the two brothers and the respective pos- 
terity of each. And in fact Edom was always the most implacable 
enemy of the many that Israel had in the whole course of their 
history. 

The oracular reply that "the elder shall serve the younger," 
indicated, antecedently to any act of theirs (as the apostle says 
in Rom. 9: 11, 12), upon which of them fell the divine election 
to be the heir of the promises given Abraham, and confirmed to 
his son Isaac; and doubtless this oracle (of which they could not 
remain ignorant) helped to create and foment that spirit of 
rivalry which marked their lives, and gave occasion (in addi- 
tion to their so different characters and dispositions) for the con- 
tinuance of those struggles which commenced before their birth. 

25: 24 — 28. esau and jacob are born, their diffebent disposi- 
tions AND CHARACTERS. (1837 B. C.) 

24 And when her days to be delivered were fulfilled, behold, there 
were twins in her womb. 

25 And the first came forth red, all over like a hairy garment ; and 
they called his name Esau. 

26 And after that came forth his brother, and his hand had hold 
on Esau's heel ; and his name was called Jacob : and Isaac was three- 
score years old when she bare them. 

27 And the boys grew : and Esau was a skilful hunter, a man of 
the field ; and Jacob was a quiet* man, dwelling in tents. 

*Or, harmless, B.eb. s perfect. [A. V., plain.] 



306 GENESIS 

28 Now Isaac loved Esau, because he did eat of bis venison : and 
Rebekab loved Jacob. 

According to our usage, children take the name of their parents, 
or of the kindred of their parents, or their friends; or else a 
name chosen according to their fancy or caprice; in the early ages 
it would seem that proper names were scarce, judging by the fre- 
quent repetition of them which we have in the ancient geneological 
tables; and any trivial circumstance of their birth, or any acci- 
dent in their personal history was sufficient to determine the 
name they would bear. Comp. vr. 30. Indeed, it is to be be- 
lieved that the original name was sometimes exchanged, at a 
later date, for another which more adequately expressed any 
notable circumstance of their life. It is probable that it so hap- 
pened with Abel (— "Vanity" ) . The radical differences which 
existed between these boys, Esau and Jacob, began to reveal them- 
selves before they were born, and were supposed to be revealed 
in their very appearance, and in the circumstances of their birth. 
It ordinarily happens that twins are much alike; but here it was 
just the opposite. Esau, the first-born, was red ("ruddy" the same 
word is translated in the case of David, in 1 Sam. 16: 12; 17: 
42), both as to his complexion and the color of his hair, and 
"all over like a hairy garment"; from which circumstance he took 
the name Esau (= hairy); an indication of his rude, violent, 
frank and passionate character. Jacob, on the contrary, was of a 
smooth skin (ch. 27: 11) and of a character no less smooth and 
deceitful; and in the opinion of his friends he manifested in the 
very moment of his birth his treacherous tendencies, seizing his 
elder brother by the heel; for which reason they gave him a 
name of reproach, which at the time of his conversion God 
changed to a most honorable one, saying: "Thou shalt be no 
more called Jacob (= Supplanter), but Israel (=He who strives, 
or prevails with God); for thou hast contended with God and 
with men and hast prevailed." Ch. 32: 28. 

As they grew up, the young men developed the same tendencies 
and characteristics. Esau was a man of the field (or country, in- 
cluding the woods), not given to agriculture, which indeed was no 
part of his business; but a skilful hunter, and ready to fight 
hand to hand with as many fierce beasts, or fiercer men as set 
themselves before him. The story of David and his encounters 
with the bear and the lion (1 Sam. 17: 34 — 36), as something 
often repeated, will give us an idea of the perils in the midst of 
which Esau passed his life as a hunter, in unpeopled wilds, 800 
years before David was born. Jacob, on the contrary, was a 
"quiet (or 'plain') man," without skill or dexterity, or other 



CHAPTER 25-: 24—28 307 

manly accomplishments, and passed his life seated indolently 
among the tents, or in womanish occupations in the encampment. 
The old opinion that Jacob was pious, and devoted to divine things 
from his youth, is without doubt founded on the word which is 
translated "plain," which others render "sinc ere" ; and as this is 
the same word which in the case of Job (ch. 1: 1), is translated 
"perfect," some have believed that it ought to be understood here 
in a good sense. But the epithet "perfect" has no application 
whatever in the case of Jacob, and it is necesiary to seek some 
other meaning which better agrees with the known facts of his 
life. "Plain" or "simple" is that word, not in the sense of sincere 
or innocent, but in the sense of without art, or skill, or manly 
accomplishments. Jacob was "a quiet (or plain) man who dwelt 
in tents" misleads one, in contrasting his life and character with 
that of Esau; for Esau was undoubtedly more frank and sincere 
than Jacob; and he also "dwelt in tents," of course, as he had 
no house to dwell in; with this difference, that Jacob dwelt in 
tents by day, and Esau by night. "To dwell" and "to sit down" 
are the same word in Hebrew; and the purpose of the author is 
doubtless to paint Esau as bold, valiant, skillful, dexterous, habit- 
uated to dangers, and a stranger to fear; while Jacob was with- 
out skill or dexterity, or any special accomplishment, without am- 
bition, of a timid disposition (as he revealed it in the house of 
Laban), and passed his life sitting indolently about the encamp- 
ment. A knowledge of the unamiable, unattractive, unpromising 
character of Jacob is essential to a proper recognition of the hand 
of God in the work of his conversion. It is greatly to the discredit 
of religion to represent the false and intriguing Jacob, as having 
been pious from his youth. 

Isaac admired and loved his valiant hunter, and the reason 
given manifests at the same time his weak side: "Isaac loved 
Esau, because he did eat of his venison" (a very expressive phrase 
in Hebrew: "because his venison was in his mouth") ; "but Re- 
bekah loved Jacob," whom she had always with her at home; 
and the form of the declaration implies that the partiality of each 
for the favorite son was open, and without any pretense or dis- 
guise. Polygamy produced lamentable results in the family of 
Abraham and Jacob; Isaac was a strict monogamist and much 
devoted to his wife, ch. 24: 67 (perhaps weakly subject to her 
will) ; but results no less lamentable grew out of such a happy 
beginning, for particular reasons; and especially on account of the 
undisguised partiality of the parents each for the favorite son. 
It is impossible for parents not to have preferences in the family 
and love their children with varying degrees of affection; unless 



308 GENESIS 

all of them are cast in the same mould, and have all the same 
character and disposition: the evil lies in their manifesting it, or 
in varying their treatment according to their partiality. 

25: 29 — 34. jacob with shameless selfishness demands it, and 

ESAU WITH PROFANE SPIEIT SELLS HIM HIS BIRTH-RIGHT. (Of 

uncertain date.) 

29 And Jacob boiled pottage: and Esau came in from the field, 
and he was faint : 

30 and Esau said to Jacob, Feed me, I pray thee, with* that same 
red pottage; for I am faint : therefore was his name called Edom. 

31 And Jacob said, Sell me first thy birthright. 

32 And Esau said, Behold, I am about to die: and what profit 
shall the birthright do to me? 

33 And Jacob said, Swear to me first ; and he sware unto him : 
and he sold his birthright unto Jacob. 

34 And Jacob gave Esau bread and pottage of lentils; and he did 
eat and drink, and rose up, and went his way : so Esau despised his 
birthright. 

*[If. 8. V., Let me gulp down part of, etc.] 

The divine oracle had declared, before the children of Rebekah 
were born, that "the elder should serve the younger." This the 
two parents well knew, and it was not possible that the two sons 
should fail to know it also; and that would contribute its part to 
promote a spirit of rivalry and discord between the two. The 
marked partiality of each of the parents for the favorite son, 
operating upon the different disposition of each, and upon the 
rivalry already existing between them, made matters worse and 
worse. One day Esau came in from his favorite occupation, com- 
pletely exhausted, and he found Jacob in the tent as usual, busy 
with the womanish occupation of cooking a mess of pottage. He 
urgently, but civilly, begged he would permit him to "devour" a 
part of that same red pottage, which Jacob had before him, the 
sight of which and its odor appealed irresistibly to his present need, 
worn out as he was with fatigue: (M. S. V., "I beg that thou wilt 
let me gulp down part of that same red pottage"). The very word 
which he uses (lagnat), "devour," "gulp, or swallow down," at- 
tests his urgent necessity and the passionateness of his request: 
with a single gulp he was ready to pass it from the pot to his 
stomach. Prom this red pottage Esau took the second name that 
he bore, to wit, "Edom" = Red. It would seem that Jacob had 
for a long time been on the watch for a favorable opportunity 
to capture that birth-right, of which an accident of his birth, and 
the difference of a single moment, had deprived him, and to the 
possession of which, in his opinion, the oracle of God gave him the 
best of titles. Like the mother of Herodias, who for a long time 



CHAPTER 25: 29—34 309 

was seeking the favorable opportunity for the accomplishment of 
her designs (Mark 6: 21 — 24), so Jacob, always on the alert, seeing 
here his opportunity, took advantage of the impatient importunity 
of Esau and his urgent necessity, saying: "Sell me this day (or 
first of all) thy birthright!" Esau, who with all his fine natural 
endowments and his admirable qualities, was out and out a world- 
ling, for whom "the blessing of Abraham" was a matter of little 
importance, required no urging, nor did he hesitate a moment. 
Resolute, frank and open-hearted in everything, he said to Jacob: 
"Behold I am at the point to die, and what profit shall the birth- 
right do to me?" But Jacob, distrustful, astute and without 
natural affection, said: "Swear to me first!" and the worldly and 
valiant hunter, bold in everything, did not hesitate, but without 
vacillation swore to him; selling to Jacob his birthright for a mess 
of pottage. It is wonderful with what skill the Bible paints this 
act of contemning holy things: "Then Jacob gave to Esau bread 
and pottage of lentils; and he did eat, and drank, and rose up, 
and went his way: so Esau despised his birthright." It is neces- 
sary to keep in view the fact that together with the birthright, 
"the blessing of Abraham" carried with it the promises of human 
redemption: things about which Esau did not concern himself 
enough to understand the magnitude of his sin. 

.Well has the apostle said: "Looking diligently lest any man 
fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up 
trouble you, and thereby many be defiled; lest there be any forni- 
cator, or profane person, as Esau, who for one mess of meat sold 
his own birthright. For ye know that even when he afterward 
desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected; for he found no 
place for a change of mind (in his father), though he sought it 
diligently with tears." Heb. 12: 15 — 17. The apostle does not 
admit that the pressing urgency of Esau's necessity (though it 
sets in an odious light the meanness of Jacob) can in any wise 
mitigate the foolish wickedness of his act. Others, rather than 
lose an incorruptible crown, have willingly lost every worldly 
good, and even life itself; but Esau, rather than put a check upon 
his appetite until somebody could prepare him food, sold for one 
savory morsel the great privileges of his birthright, together with 
the promises of the human redemption. Let all sensualists give 
attention to this — especially those sensualists whom the apostle 
particularly addresses, who by profession are found in the house- 
hold and family of faith. 

The timid Jacob was by nature incapable of sinning in the same 
way as Esau, although he incited him to do it, and was capable 
of sinning no less gravely in other ways. And those parents 



310 GENESIS 

who have children with Esau's disposition, who do nothing by 
halves, ought to endeavor constantly and with ardent prayer to 
God, to preoccupy their hearts with the lessons and examples of a 
true and noble piety; in order that they may be valiant for the 
truth, bold in the defence of the right, resolute and intrepid in 
fulfilling their obligations: unless this is done, their natural tem- 
per will tend to drag them blindly into the wild excesses and dis- 
orders of an unholy and criminal life. 

CHAPTER XXVI. 

VES. 1 — 5. ON ACCOUNT OF A FAMINE IN THE LAND, ISAAC SETS OUT 
FOB EGYPT; BUT GOD STOPS HIM IN THE LAND OF THE PHILISTINES; 
HE BENEWS TO HIM THE COVENANT MADE WITH ABBAHAM, AND 
CONSTITUTES HIM THE HEIB OF THE PBOMISES. (Of Uncertain 

date.) 

1 And there was a famine in the land, besides the first famine 
that was in the days of Abraham. And Isaac went unto Abimelech 
king of the Philistines, unto Gerar. 

2 And Jehovah appeared unto him, and said, Go not down into 
Egypt ; dwell in the land which I shall tell thee of : 

3 sojourn in this land, and I will be with thee, and will bless 
thee ; for unto thee, and unto thy seed, I will give all these lands, 
and I will establish the oath which I sware unto Abraham thy 
father ; 

4 and I will multiply thy seed as the stars of heaven, and will 
give unto thy seed all these lands ; and in thy seed shall all the na- 
tions of the earth be blessed; 

5 because that Abraham obeyed my voice, and kept my charge, 
my commandments, my statutes, and my laws. 

In our happy America we do not know what famine means, as 
It is known in the Eastern Hemisphere. In parts of Europe, and 
particularly in the great plains of Russia, they know it also. In 
India and China people die of famine, with only too great fre- 
quency, by hundreds of thousands, and even by millions. In 
Palestine, one of the natural conditions most necessary to the 
discipline and tutelage of the people of Israel under the hand 
of God, consisted in the fact that a country so rich and abundant 
In years of seasonable rains, was at all times liable to seasons of 
drought, general or partial, which brought about a famine of 
greater or less extent; and this, in order that the people should 
always feel their constant dependence on the provident hand of 
God for the means of subsistence. 

More than a hundred years before, Abraham, recently arrived 
from Haran, in Mesopotamia, and resident in this same part of 
Canaan, went down into Egypt on account of a famine there was 
in the land. It seems that Isaac proposed to take the same step; 



CHAPTER 26 : 1—5 311 

and so from Beersheba, or the Well of the Living-One-who-seeth- 
me (ch. 25: 11), he went to Gerar, with the intention of going 
from there into Egypt. Abimelech was then king of the Philis- 
tines in Gerar. As it is impossible that he should be the same 
man who reigned there before the birth of Isaac (ch. 21: 2), it 
seems probable that in Gerar the name "Abimelech" (=My 
father the king), like "Pharaoh" in Egypt, was the title of the 
king, rather than his proper name. The common chronology 
assigns to this event the approximate date of 1805 B. C, when 
Isaac was 93 years of age; and if Rebekah was 20 when she 
married him, she would be about 73; — suppositions, both of them, 
which are little in accord with the incident mentioned in vrs. 
6 — 9. There are but few dates in these histories given in the 
margin of our Bibles, in which we can have entire confidence, 
even accepting for certain the chronology of the Hebrew text. 
(See Note 12, on Biblical Chronology.) This is one of the cases 
where we have a full certainty of error; and the circumstance of 
its being narrated after the sale which Esau had made of his 
birthright, does not prove that the occurrence really took place 
after that deed, or that Isaac and Jacob were at that time 30 or 
35 years of age. The Bible does not follow strictly the chronolog- 
ical order of the events which it relates. Even the Four Gospels 
do not always follow it, and notably the Gospel of Luke. We 
have already several times seen, and particularly in the case of 
Keturah (ch. 25: 1), that Moses himself did not always follow 
the order of events in his narrative; and in ch. 25, the death 
and burial of Abraham is related in vr. 8, while in vr. 22 of the 
same we have the inquiry which Rebekah made of Jehovah 
(probably by means of Abraham himself) with regard to her un- 
born children, 15 years before the death of Abraham. There is 
nothing, therefore, in the history to indicate that, on this oc- 
casion, Jacob and Esau, were more than youths, or that Rebekah 
was more than 50 or 60 years of age. Isaac was 40 years old when 
he married Rebekah, and was 60 when the boys were born. Ch. 
25: 20, 26. 

Although Isaac left his place of residence to go down into 
Egypt, Jehovah stopped him in Gerar, and told him not to go 
there, but to dwell in the land which he would tell him of; which 
was in fact the same place where he then was. He promised to 
be with him and bless him; and he confirmed to him one by one 
the identical promises made to Abraham and his seed; showing 
him these great and distinguishing favors on account of the 
obedience and fidelity of his father Abraham. 



312 GENESIS 

26: 6 — 11. isaac in gerar; where, in imitation of his father, in 

THIS SAME CITY, HE DENIES REBEKAH HIS WIFE. (Of Uncertain 

date.) 

6 And Isaac dwelt in Gerar : 

7 and the men of the place asked him of his wife; and he said, 
She is my sister : for he feared to say, My wife ; lest, said he, the men 
of the place should kill me for Rebekah ; because she was fair to look 
upon. 

8 And it came to pass, when he had been there a long time, that 
Abimelech king of 'the Philistines looked out at a window, and saw, 
and, behold, Isaac was sporting with Rebekah his wife. 

9 And Abimelech called Isaac, and said, Behold, of a surety she is 
thy wife: and how saidst thou, She is my sister? And Isaac said 
unto him, Because I said. Lest I die because of her. 

10 And Abimelech said, What is this thou hast done unto us? 
one of the people might easily have lain with thy wife, and thou 
wouldst have brought guiltiness upon us. 

11 And Abimelech charged all the people, saying, He that touch- 
eth this man or his wife shall surely be put to death. 

It is evident from vr. 8 that Isaac remained a long while in 
Gerar, before he departed thence to encamp in "the valley of 
Gerar" (vr. 17) ; where he remained a much longer time, in spite 
of the persistent hostility of the Philistines (removing from one 
point to another), before finally "he went up from thence to Beer* 
sheba," vr. 23. It seems, then, that it was during his life in the 
city, and before he withdrew to the valley of Gerar, that Isaac 
observed that the beauty of his wife might compromise his inter- 
ests and even endanger his life. "The men of the place asked him 
of his wife"; a thing which caused him annoyance and concern. 
The Hebrew text does not say that they asked Mm, and therefore 
"him" (in the A. V. and M. S. V.) is printed in italics. It is 
probable that the extraordinary beauty of the woman came to the 
knowledge of the public and was a matter of common town talk, 
until at last they asked him as to the relations which subsisted 
between the two. Whether it was that Rebekah neglected the 
counsel which the former king Abimelech had given to her mother- 
in-law, Sarah (ch. 20: 16), or whether it was that the fame of her 
beauty supplied the lack of sight, the certainty is that the rare 
comeliness of the woman put in motion the tongues of the men 
of Gerar. Abraham anticipated the questions they might ask as 
to Sarah, saying beforehand that she was his sister; Isaac felt 
that he was in a still nearer peril, because the inquiries they 
were already making about his wife (see comment on ch. 18: 9) 
revealed clearly the dangers that were surrounding him. Taking 
counsel of his fears, then, instead of his God, Isaac betook him- 
self to the same expedient his father had made use of in this 
very city of Gerar, of which no doubt he had intelligence, and 



CHAPTER 26: 6—11 313 

said: "She is my sister." It is evident that the woman was at- 
tracting more attention than was convenient or safe, and that the 
reply (or replies) of Isaac was well known, since Abimelech the 
king was fully aware of it. It happened therefore, one day, dur- 
ing the long abode of Isaac in Gerar, that looking out of a win- 
dow, which gave him a view of the tent or the house of Isaac, 
Abimelech saw that, "behold! Isaac was sporting with Rebekah." 
The words do not imply that he passed the limits of modesty, 
but they do imply that he was taking liberties with her that 
would be improper between brother and sister, or between unmar- 
ried persons. Calling Isaac, therefore, he said that she was 
manifestly his wife and not his sister; and he reproved him for 
the deceit he had practiced on them. Isaac excused himself, on 
the ground of his fear that they would kill him on account of the 
beauty of his wife. It would seem that Abimelech acknowledged 
in part that his fears were not entirely groundless; and he was 
sure that the God of Abraham, who put in mortal terror the 
former Abimelech, would not regard with indifference an offence 
committed against Isaac and his wife; for he gave rigorous orders 
that whosoever should touch the man or his wife should surely 
be put to death. 

Abimelech showed himself in this matter the worthy son of a 
worthy father (ch. 20:9, 10); and the horror with which he 
and his father looked upon the crime of adultery, seems to indi- 
cate that the morals of the people were as yet in a condition 
greatly superior to that which existed in the days of Moses; 
when on account of their unspeakable abominations, he declared 
that the earth itself was ready to vomit out its inhabitants. 
Lev. 18: 3, 26—28. 

The readiness with which Isaac fell into the sin of his father, 
reveals to us how much easier it is for children to imitate the 
vices and weaknesses of their parents than their virtues, and 
how the sins of parents are frequently perpetuated in their 
children. 

If Abraham and Isaac, who were powerful princes, had reason 
to fear that they might die on account of their beautiful wives, 
what must have been the condition of the common people? and 
what security could any ordinary person have for the possession 
of a so much coveted good? All the history of antiquity, and the 
social condition of the Middle Ages, and the actual condition of 
unevangelized nations and peoples, and of the criminal classes 
of our own great cities, show clearly that the fears entertained 
by Abraham and Isaac were not ill-founded; and it ought to fill 
us with continual gratitude to God, that the direct and indirect 



314 GENESIS 

influence of the Gospel has made itself felt with such powerful 
effect in the world, that the man who has a beautiful wife has 
now no fear of dying on her account, nor (among peoples formed 
under the influence of the Gospel) does he live in continual appre- 
hension of a criminal invasion of his honor and the purity of 
his home. 

This danger in those times was real and very great; but that in 
no wise excused the great sin into which Abraham and Isaac 
fell on account of their fears, nor their little faith in God, in 
those times of visible peril. It has been wisely said: 
"The fear of man bringeth a snare, 
but whoso putteth his trust in Jehovah shall be safe." 

Prov. 29: 25. 

But while we censure their lack of full confidence in God, let 
us remember that in our circumstances, so different from theirs, 
and completely protected as we are against like dangers, we are 
not in the most favorable position to judge of their case with 
fairness and strict impartiality. 

26: 12 — 22. uncertainty of dates, isaac adds agriculture to 
the care of his flocks and herds. his great prosperity,. and 
the envy of the phhistines. (Of uncertain date.) 

12 And Isaac sowed in that land, and found in the same year a 
hundredfold : and Jehovah blessed him. 

13 And the man waxed great, and grew more and more until 
he became very great : 

14 and he had possessions of flocks, and possessions of herds, and 
a great household : and the Philistines envied him. 

15 Now all the wells which his father's servants had digged in the 
days of Abraham his father, the Philistines had stopped, and filled 
with earth. 

16 And Abimelech said unto Isaac, Go from us; for thou art 
much mightier than we. 

17 And Isaac departed thence, and encamped in the valley of 
Gerar, and dwelt there. 

18 And Isaac digged again the wells of water, which they had 
digged in the days of Abraham his father ; for the Philistines had 
stopped them after the death of Abraham : and he called their names 
after the names by which his father had called them. 

19 And Isaac's servants digged in the valley, and found there a 
well of springing* water. 

20 And the herdsmen of Gerar strove with Isaac's herdsmen, say- 
ing, The water is ours: and he called the name of the well Esek,f 
because they contended with him. 

21 And they digged another well, and they strove for that also; 
and he called the name of it Sitnah.$ 

22 And he removed from thence, and digged another well ; and for 
that they strove not: and he called the name of it Rehoboth:]] and 
he said, For now Jehovah hath made room for us, and we shall be 
fruitful in the land. 

*HeJ}. living. %That is, enmity. 

-\That is, contention. \\That is, Room. 



CHAPTER 26: 12—22 315 

The little security that we have as to the chronological dates 
given in our Bibles (excepting certain determined epochs) is 
seen here in the fact that all this chapter goes in our Bibles under 
the date of "1804 B. C.", whereas it is certain that its contents em- 
brace a period of several years, if not of many years. We have 
here, (1) the long residence of Isaac in Gerar, vr. 8; (2) his 
residence in the country near to the city, where he sowed the 
lands and reaped a prodigious harvest; (3) "he went from there, 
rudely sent away by Abimelech, and encamped in the valley of 
Gerar, and dwelt there" (vr. 17) — a word which signifies long 
residence in a given place; (4) the envy of the Philistines, who 
contended with him for the wells he had dug, and obliged him 
to break up camp and dig new wells,— a thing that was several 
times repeated, he digging new wells, and reopening "all the 
wells which the servants of his father had dug," (vr. 15) in this 
same valley of Gerar, "which the Philistines, after the death 
of his father Abraham, had stopped, filling them with earth"; 
"and he gave them the same names which his father had given 
them." Vrs. 15 — 18. "All the wells" would be at least four, 
while Isaac himself dug three besides, to which he gave names 
of his own. And all this, before he at last left those contentious 
folk, "and went up thence to Beersheba" (vr. 23), going higher 
up the valley. There Abimelech made him a visit, at the time 
that he was digging still another well — the eighth; the largest 
number of wells we hear of as dug by any one man; at a time 
when the digging of wells was the work of princes (see comments 
on ch. 21: 25, 30), and when the finding of abundant waters was 
the occasion of general rejoicings: 

"Then sang Israel this song: 

Spring up, oh well; sing ye unto it! 

the well which the princes digged, 

which the nobles of the people delved, 

with their staves, by order of the lawgiver" (M. S. V.). 

Num. 21: 17, 18. 
Isaac was the most famous digger of wells of whom we have 
notice in the Bible; and they are all mentioned in this chapter. 
If he had occupied 10 or 15 years in this, it would not be sur- 
prising: that he should have dug them all in the year 1804 B. C, 
is altogether incredible. 

When Isaac departed from Gerar, or perhaps while still re- 
siding there, he added agriculture to the care of his numerous 
flocks and herds of cattle. Undoubtedly Abraham and Jacob 
also gave some attention to agriculture, although we have no 
mention of it; but the fact we have here mentioned seems to in- 



316 GENESIS 

dicate that Isaac began the work on a large scale; and through 
the blessing of Jehovah the product of his labors was great. The 
circumstance that the man enriched himself extraordinarily as the 
result of his new enterprise, manifests that he continued at it for 
many years, besides that first year in which Jehovah gave him 
the return of a hundred for one. This astonishing increase of 
his wealth in the land of the Philistines provoked their envy 
to such a degree that he had to remove from place to place, 
digging new wells, or opening afresh the wells dug by his father, 
which the Philistines had filled with earth after his death; a 
thing they would not have dared to do during the life of Abra- 
ham; which places in clear relief the fact that Isaac had com- 
pletely lost the ascendency which his father had among those 
Canaanites. His prosperity was too great for a man who was 
cordially disliked, and who was of a weak and irresolute char- 
acter. After Isaac had given up one well after another to the 
contentious Philistines, Abimelech, who regarded him as a 
troublesome guest in his land, said to him plainly: "Go from 
us, for thou art much mightier than we!" Vr. 16. This was 
probably an exaggeration, and served only as a pretext for send- 
ing him rudely away (vr. 27) ; but in any case it shows us 
how vast was the encampment of Isaac, and how large was the 
number of his people. Compare another exaggeration in Ex. 1: 
9, spoken by Pharaoh with like intent: "The people of the 
children of Israel are more and mightier than we." 

"A well of living waters," in vr. 19, is an expression difficult 
to explain, regarded as a distinctive mark of this particular well. 
Because all the eight wells Isaac had dug, or opened anew, since 
they were not cisterns of water, were wells of "springing water." 
The Jews, nevertheless, used the word "living water" for "run- 
ning water" (Comp. John 4: 11) ; and it is possible that this par- 
ticular well was distinguished from the rest by the force and 
abundance with which the water, when they struck it, leaped 
upward; or perhaps the well was of little depth, and the water, 
after filling it, overflowed in great abundance. 

On digging his last well in the pasture lands of Abimelech, the 
Philistines did not contend for it; and for this reason he gave 
it the name of Rehoboth (=Room; 16 miles to the south of 
Beersheba), saying "Because Jehovah hath made room for us, 
and we shall be fruitful in the land." Vr. 22. We infer from this 
that Isaac intended to remain much time there. This well still 
remains in Rehoboth, strengthened with works of masonry of 
immense proportions and of very great antiquity. It is believed 
that it is the same well which Isaac dug. But the country is 



CHAPTER 26: 23—25 317 

now a complete desert — a Sahara; showing how much it has 
changed since the time when Isaac expected to "he fruitful in 
that land." 

26: 23 — 25. in beersheba jehovah appears to him again, and 
tranquilizes his fears. (Of uncertain date.) 

23 And he went up from thence to Beer-sheba. 

24 And Jehovah appeared unto him the same night, and said, I 
am the God of Abraham thy father : fear not, for I am with thee, 
and will bless thee, and multiply thy seed for my servant Abraham's 
sake. 

25 And he builded an altar there, and called upon the name of 
Jehovah, and pitched his tent* there : and there Isaac's servants 
digged a well. 

*M. 8. V., his tents. 

Although Isaac had named his last well "Rehoboth," because 
the Philistines had no dispute with him about it, and although 
he had promised himself "to be fruitful in that land," yet when 
least we expect it "he went up from thence to Beersheba." This 
circumstance, taken in connection with the fact that "Jehovah 
appeared to him that same night, and said to him: I am the 
God of Abraham thy father; fear not for I am with thee," is 
enough to satisfy us that at last something unlooked for happened 
which not only made him break up his encampment, but filled his 
heart with apprehension, if not with alarm. Abraham, Isaac and 
Paul (Comp. ch. 15: 1 and Acts 27: 24) give us examples of how 
God was wont to improve times of danger and anxiety to make 
to his servants tranquilizing revelations of his presence and 
his blessing. 

It would be difficult to acquit Isaac of the charge of timidity; 
and however exaggerated may have been the allegation of 
Abimelech: "Thou art much mightier than we" (vr. 16), we 
cannot understand how he should give up one well after another, 
six or seven consecutively, except by the admission that there 
was in him a timidity which verged on cowardice. From Abra- 
ham these same warlike Philistines had once taken by force his 
well at Beersheba, 25 miles from Gerar; and Abraham in the 
interest of peace had submitted for some time to the injustice 
done; but always with a purpose of complaining to the king 
of the country, and recovering what was his. See ch. 21: 25, etc. 
"A great prince (Heb. a prince of God) art thou in the midst of 
us" (ch. 23: 6), expresses well the respect and deference with 
which this great man inspired all who had anything to do with 
him. But Isaac was of a different temper and disposition; and it 
would seem that the Philistines regarded with some contempt 
the numerical force which he had at his command, in view of the 



318 GENESIS 

weakness and vacillation of the hand which grasped the sword. 
Isaac was not only pacific, extremely pacific, but he was of a weak 
and irresolute character; and doubtless he must have gone away 
from Rehoboth intimidated and troubled, for Jehovah to appear 
at once to him, "that same night," for the sole purpose of 
speaking to him the tranquilizing words that we have quoted, 
and to assure him anew of his part in the blessings promised to 
his father Abraham. It is no small consolation for us to know 
that in the love and esteem of God, there was place not only for 
the magnanimous Abraham, but for the weak and timid Isaac. 

In this paragraph we read for the first and last time of 
Isaac's building an altar to Jehovah. It would be unjust to infer 
from this that it was the first and only time that Isaac offered 
sacrifice, and made public confession and adoration of Jehovah. 
The four several times that Abraham is said to have built an 
altar to Jehovah are enough to give us to understand that 
wherever he pitched his tent, there also he had his altar. It is 
therefore much more probable that it was the manner, character 
and object of this revelation with which Jehovah favored his 
servant, and the juncture at which he granted it, which called 
for this special commemoration of building an altar to Jehovah, 
and its mention in this place. 

Two things strike us here as strange: 1st. That Isaac should 
dig a well in Beersheba, a place which had taken its name 
(=Well of the oath) from the oath which Abraham and Abime- 
lech had there mutually pledged to each other many years before, 
and where Abimelech accepted seven ewe lambs in witness that 
Abraham had dug that well (ch. 21: 30, 31); and 2nd. That he 
should build an altar where Abraham, in his very long residence 
near this well, was accustomed to call upon the name of Jehovah, 
under the shade of his grove (ch. 21: 33), and where necessarily 
he had built his altar. It is still more notable that in virtue of 
the oath which he and Abimelech made there, Isaac should give 
to his well the same name of Beersheba, which Abraham had 
given it nearly 100 years before. The readiest explanation of it, 
and probably the most correct and satisfactory, is that the 
herdsmen of Gerar claimed all this country as their pasture lands 
(ch. 21: 25), and even Rehoboth, 16 miles farther south (vr. 22) ; 
and as they were envious of Isaac and hated him, they not only 
stopped all the wells that Abraham had dug in the valley of 
Gerar, but this of Beersheba also (in the same valley), in spite 
of the oath of peace which had been made there; and that as 
hatred and envy was the cause of all this, they not only filled 
the well with earth, but perhaps also cut down his groye 



CHAPTER 26 : 26—33 319 

(which is not mentioned any more), and threw down his altar. 
In vr. 18 we are told, in regard to the wells of his father which 
Isaac opened again, that he gave them the same names that hi3 
father had given them. This will perfectly explain the case we 
have here. 

26: 26 — 33. abimelech makes a covenant of peace with Isaac 
in beeesheba. (Of uncertain date.) 

26 Then Abimelech went to him from Gerar, and Ahuzzath his 
friend, and Phicol the captain of his host. 

27 And Isaac said unto them, Wherefore are ye come unto me, 
seeing ye hate me, and have sent me away from you? 

28 And they said, We saw plainly that Jehovah was with thee : 
and we said, Let there now be an oath betwixt us, even betwixt us 
and thee, and let us make a covenant with thee, 

29 that thou wilt do us no hurt, as we have not touched thee, and 
as we have done unto thee nothing but gooJ, and have sent thee away 
in peace : thou art now the blessed of Jehovah. 

30 And he made them a feast, and they did eat and drink. 

31 And they rose up betimes in the morning, and sware one to 
another : and Isaac sent them away, and they departed from him 
in peace. 

32 And it came to pass the same day, that Isaac's servants came, 
and told him concerning the well which they had digged, and said 
unto him, We have found water. 

33 And he called it Shibah : therefore the name of the city is 
Beer-sheba unto this day. 

Eighty or ninety years before, according to the common chro- 
nology, when Isaac was still a little boy, this same scene was 
witnessed in this very place. Of the participants in that trans- 
action, Phicol, captain of Abimelech's army, alone remains. 
Abimelech (who for convenience we shall call Abimelech I, call- 
ing Abimelech II this contemporary of Isaac), had of course 
died; because he was so old a man that he had desired to marry 
Sarah, who was at that time nearly 90 years of age; so that it is 
not to be supposed that he was still alive and vigorous. This 
Abimelech, probably the son of the former, presents himself with 
a friend of his who under every point of view is a new character 
— '"Ahuzzath his friend," who comes in here to give us informa- 
tion as to Abimelech himself. Valera says: "his friend," and 
the English Version says: "one of his friends," mistaking the 
form of the word. The R. V. says "Ahuzzath his friend," giving 
us to understand that the word is used in a special or technical 
sense, to indicate probably "the friend of the bridegroom" in a 
marriage festivity (John 3: 29); we therefore infer that Abime- 
lech was young and recently married, and that the chief of his 
companions on this occasion was this Ahuzzath. The history of 
Samson makes it all plain to us; and both events happened among 
these same Philistines. In Samson's marriage feast, "they 



320 GENESIS 

brought him thirty companions to be with him"; but among these 
thirty there was one only who was called by pre-eminence his 
"companion" and "his friend" (Judges 14:11, 20; 15:2); and 
when in an access of rage, Samson rudely broke up the feast, 
and "burning in anger went up to his father's house," "the wife 
of Samson was given to his companion, who had been his 
friend" Judges 14: 19, 20. To the same custom John the 
Baptist alludes, when he compares himself "to the friend of the 
bridegroom who standeth and heareth him." John 3: 29. In the 
Greek translation of the LXX, Ahuzzath is called the "numpha- 
gogos" of Abimelech; that is to say the friend of the bridegroom, 
who presented to him the bride. I believe that little or nothing 
is now lacking to prove that Abimelech was young and recently 
married, and that Ahuzzath was his chief wedding companion, 
his "best man," according to an Americanism of recent coinage, 
or his "padrino de boda," according to Spanish usage. Phicol, if 
he were young on the former occasion, might be the same person 
mentioned here; or more probably he was another person of the 
same name. 

With this accompaniment, and doubtless with soldiers also at 
the orders Of their "captain," Abimelech came to visit Isaac; who 
received him with coldness: "Wherefore are ye come unto me, 
seeing ye hate me, and have sent me away from you?" All 
which manifests that their separation had been marked by vio- 
lence and ill-will. It is difficult to penetrate the true feelings 
and purposes of the Orientals, who always speak with reserve, 
disguising the true object they have in view, and doing every- 
thing by indirection. In the case of Abraham, it is easy to dis- 
cern it; because there was to be arranged that question of the 
well which the Philistines had taken from him by force (ch. 21: 
21, 25) ; but in the case of Isaac we can see nothing which should 
influence Abimelech, except a prudent desire to ward off the 
possible effect of the repeated injustices they had used with the 
head of a rich and powerful tribe or clan, and who had Jehovah 
for his protector; for although Abimelech neither feared nor 
served Jehovah, it was regarded in those days as a dictate of 
ordinary prudence, that while "there were gods many and lords 
many," some of greater and others of less standing and power, 
yet in any case a god could do more than a man; and for this 
reason it was wise to avoid giving offence to any of them. And 
thus, in spite of the ill-treatment they had given Isaac, with 
cool Oriental effrontery they answer him: "We plainly saw that 
Jehovah was with thee; and we said: Let there be now an oath 
betwixt us, even betwixt us and thee, and let us make a covenant 



CHAPTER 26: 26—33 321 

with thee; that thou wilt do us no hurt, as we have not touched 
thee, and as we have done unto thee nothing but good, and have 
sent thee away in peace: thou art now the blessed of Jehovah!" 
(vrs. 28, 29), — words of flattery, designed to cover up hatred. 
Isaac made them a feast, which according to the usage of the 
Old Testament was always accompanied with a sacrifice; and 
with this sacrifice it is probable that they celebrated (Heb. cut) 
the covenant asked by Abimelech, according to the rites already 
described in ch. 15: 9—18; 21: 32. 

So they ate, and drank, and slept; and "they rose up betimes 
in the morning and sware one to another." Thus Isaac sent 
them away, and they departed from him in peace. The same day 
was also notable on account of the good news his servants brought 
to Isaac with regard to a well they had digged, saying: "We 
have found water!" To this Well Isaac gave the same- expressive 
name "Beersheba" (= Well of the oath), which Abraham gave to 
his own on a similar occasion, 80 years or more before: it may 
be that it was the same well of Abraham, which the Philistines 
had stopped. At the present time there are two extremely old 
wells in Beersheba (see comment of ch. 21: 22 — 32) 300 yards 
apart, the larger of which is 12^ feet in diameter, and the lesser 
5, in great part cut in the solid rock, and abundant in the best 
of water. Dr. Edward Robinson believes that the larger of the 
two may reasonably be supposed to be the famous well of Abra- 
ham, dug almost 4000 years ago. When the second was dug, 
we have no way of finding out; nor can we conceive why the 
smaller well should have been dug at a distance of 300 yards from 
the former, when either of the two is so abundant in water. It 
is possible that the second is that which Isaac dug, while the 
former was still stopped; or if the two are wells of Abraham, it 
may be supposed that when the Philistines violently took away 
the former, and while the question was in waiting to be arranged 
by the king of the country, Abraham dug the second in the inter- 
ests of peace, rather than measure his strength with those quar- 
relsome and warlike Philistines. The locality still bears the 
same name in Arabic form, "Bir es-Seba," and there are yet 
found there the scattered remains of the city which at one time 
stood upon the high ground to the north of the wells. Robinson's 
Biblical Researches, Vol. 1 pp. 300, 301. Dr. Robinson sought in 
vain for Rehoboth, the well which Isaac dug; but since then it 
has been found, preserving still its old name in Arabic form, 16 
miles to the south of Beersheba; 12 feet in diameter, but so 
covered and filled with earth and rubbish that it was with dif- 
ficulty found. The work of masonry is the most massive that 



322 GENESIS 

exists in that part of the country, and bears evidence of being as 
old as the days of Isaac: it is called today "er- Ru- heibeh." 
Schaff's Bible Dictionary. 

26: 34, 35. the double maeeiage of esatt. (1796 b. c.) 

34 And when Esau was forty years old he took to wife Judith 
the daughter of Beeri the Hittite, and Basemath the daughter of Elon 
the Hittite: 

35 and they were a grief of mind unto Isaac and to Rebekah. 

The commentator Bush believes that after arranging terms of 
peace with Abimelech (vr. 31), Isaac enjoyed a period of delicious 
calm for 18 years, of which we have no notice whatever, until his 
domestic peace was again disturbed by the wilfulness of his 
favorite son. It would seem that Esau took two wives at once, 
and presented them together, or with little difference of time, in 
the encampment of his father; because he was forty years old 
when he married both of them. They were probably daughters 
of Canaanite princes; an alliance by which Esau sought to in- 
crease and extend his worldly importance; — something diametri- 
cally opposed to the purpose of God in calling for himself the seed 
of Abraham, and separating them from the other nations. They 
were Hittites, and perhaps from Hebron, which was a Hittite 
city, and whose princes are called the sons of Heth, in ch. 23: 
3, 10, 18; the city where Abraham resided so many years, and 
where he and Sarah his wife were buried. 

The worldly-minded Esau, who had already sold his birthright 
for a mess of pottage, little cared with whom he married, pro- 
vided it was to his satisfaction. Abraham, imbued with the re- 
ligious spirit, and animated with the Messianic hope (things 
about which Esau did not concern himself), with great solicitude 
took care that Isaac should not marry a Canaanitish woman; and 
Isaac and Rebekah manifested the same solicitude with regard to 
the marriage of Jacob. Ch. 27: 46; 28: 1, 2. This was not only, 
nor principally (as some would represent it), a zeal to keep their 
blood pure and without mixture; but, on the contrary, it was 
that if their sons married the daughters of the heathen Canaan- 
ites, in the midst of whom they lived, they would soon lose the 
traditions of their family, with every trace of that heavenly 
vocation with which Jehovah had called to himself Abraham and 
his seed, in order that they should be to him a people of his ex- 
clusive possession. From what happened with Ishmael and the 
sons of Keturah, and from what happened with Esau, the first- 
born of Isaac and Rebekah, it is easy for us to imagine what 
would have been the result if Isaac and Jacob had married women 



CHAPTER 26: 34, 35 323 

of the same class. Humanly speaking there was no reason why- 
all the sons of Abraham, including the sons of his two concubines, 
should not have "entered into the bond of the covenant" (of 
which, with their circumcision, they received the seal), the same 
as all the twelve sons of Jacob (four of whom were the children 
of his concubines, Bilah and Zilpah), except the influence of the 
Egyptian mother and wife of Ishmael and the uncongenial spirit 
of the sons of Keturah, married probably with Canaanitish women 
before their father separated them from Isaac, and sent them 
away toward the East: and so they all became "strangers from 
the covenants of the promise." Eph. 2: 12. There was in itself 
no reason why the two sons of Isaac, both of them, should 
not have at once begun to form the lineage of Abraham to 
whom pertained the promises, if it had not been for the wilful 
and worldly temper of Esau, completely foreign to the Messianic 
spirit; for whom nothing was worth anything which did not bring 
him immediate satisfaction, and in whose esteem the great 
promises made to Abraham were not worth a thought. He com- 
menced by selling his birthright to satisfy his hunger, and after- 
wards to please himself he married two daughters of Canaan 
whom he had close at hand, and who suited his fancy. It is 
worthy of our attention that the pleasure and satisfaction of 
those two marriages was purely for himself. He did not even 
consult his parents, nor ask their intervention in the matter, 
according to the use of the time and country. They were not 
even good and amiable as Canaanites; for the text informs us 
that they were "a grief of mind to Isaac and Rebekah." 

Would to God that our evangelicals would fix attention on 
the example of Esau, whose gentile wives, totally foreign to 
the spirit and purpose of the calling of Abraham and his seed, 
speedily made an end in his case of all the holy traditions and 
aspirations of the family of Abraham! A race of utter heathens 
is what they produced; and the Idumeans, children of Esau, 
pagans out and out, were always the implacable enemies of 
the children of Israel, and figure in the mouth of the prophets 
as the type par excellence of the enemies of the true God and 
of his cause and people; until at last what remained of them 
allied themselves with the famous son of Ishmael, the false 
prophet, whose device was and is: "There is no God but God, 
and Mohammed is his prophet!" — "Mohammed first, and after 
him the sen of Mary!" From Esau let those evangelicals take 
warning, who, looking chiefly to their pleasure and temporal 
profit, marry women of a worldly spirit, or fanatical enemies 
of the gospel, and so reduce their religion (if they have any) 



324 GENESIS 

to a nullity, while they bring up fanatical or wicked children, for 
whom the promises of God are not worth a groat. The zeal 
of the Roman Catholic priests against mixed marriages is of 
a very different quality. True holiness of life and the conserva- 
tion of the promises of the gospel, is what they are least con- 
cerned about; or better said, what they most fear. It does 
not greatly matter to them how much the families therefrom 
resulting sin against the laws of God, provided they do not 
oreak the yoke of the Priest. Among us, Evangelicals, the 
question of ecclesiastical relations is of comparatively little 
importance; that which is supremely important is the knowl- 
edge and love of the word of God, repentance and a living faith; 
resulting in "holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord." 
Heb. 12: 14. 

How numerous are the Esaus of the evangelical fold, who, 
born in the bosom of Christian families, and partially educated 
in the knowledge of the great privileges and hopes of the 
present and the coming kingdom of our God, give loose rein 
to their passions and their worldly inclinations, and for the 
shortlived pleasures of sin, disinherit themselves of those in- 
comparable .blessings to the inheritance of which they were born, 
without even a sigh — "even as Esau, who for one morsel of meat 
sold his own birthright!" Heb. 12: 16. 

CHAPTER XXVII. 

VRS. 1 — 29. JACOB, BY FRAUD, TAKES AWAY FROM ESAU HIS 
BLESSING. (1776 B. C.) 

1 And it came to pass, that when Isaac was old, and his eyes were 
dim, so that he could not see, he called Esau his elder son, and said 
unto him, My son ; and he said unto him, Here am I. 

2 And he said, Behold now, I am old, I know not the day of my 
death. 

3 Now therefore take, I pray thee, thy weapons, thy quiver and 
thy bow, and go out to the field and take me venison ; 

4 and make me savory food, such as I love, and bring it to me, 
that I may eat ; that my soul may bless thee before I die. 

5 And Rebekah heard* when Isaac spake to Esau his son. And 
Esau went to the field to hunt for venison, and to bring it. 

6 And Rebekah spake unto Jacob her son, saying, Behold, I heard 
thy father speak unto Esau thy brother, saying, 

7 Bring me venison, and make me savory food, that I may eat, 
and bless thee before Jehovah before my death. 

8 Now therefore, my son, obey my voice according to that which 
I command thee. 

9 Go now to the flock, and fetch me from thence two good kids 
of the goats; and I will make them savory food for thy father, such 
as he loveth : 

10 and thou shalt bring it to thy father, that he may eat, so that 
he may bless thee before his death. 

*M. S. V., was listening. 



CHAPTER 27: 1—29 325 

11 And Jacob said to Rebekah his mother, Behold, Esau my 
brother is a hairy man, and I am a smooth man. 

12 My father peradventure will feel me, and I shall seem to him 
as a deceiver ; and I shall bring a curse upon me, and not a blessing. 

13 And his mother said unto him, Upon me be thy curse, my son ; 
only obey my voice, and go fetch me them. 

14 And he went, and fetched, and brought them to his mother : 
and his mother made savory food, such as his father loved. 

15 And Rebekah took the goodly garments of Esau her elder son, 
which were with her in the house, and put them upon Jacob her 
younger son ; 

16 and she put the skins of the kids of the goats upon his hands, 
and upon the smooth of his neck : 

17 and she gave the savory food and the bread, which she had 
prepared, into the hand of her son Jacob. 

18 And he came unto his father, and said, My father : and he said, 
Here am I; who art thou, my son? 

19 And Jacob said unto his father, I am Esau thy first-born ; 
I have done according as thou badest me : arise, I pray thee, sit and 
eat of my venison, that thy soul may bless me. 

20 And Isaac said unto his son, How is it that thou hast found it 
so quickly, my son? And he said, Because Jehovah thy God sent me 
good speed. 

21 And Isaac said unto Jacob, Come near, I pray thee, that I may 
feel thee, my son, whether thou be my very son Esau or not. 

22 And Jacob went near unto Isaac his father ; and he felt him, 
and said, The voice" is Jacob's voice, but the hands are the hands of 
Esau. 

23 And he discerned him not, because his hands were hairy, as 
his brother Esau's hands : so he blessed him. 

24 And he said, Art thou my very son Esau? And he said, I am. 

25 And he said, Bring it near to me, and I will eat of my son's 
venison, that my soul may bless thee. And he brought it near to 
him, and he did eat : and he brought him wine, and he drank. 

26 And his father Isaac said unto him, Come near now, and kiss 
me, my son. 

27 And he came near, and kissed him : and he smelled the smell 
of his raiment, and blessed him, and said, 

See, the smell of my son 

Is as the smell of a field which Jehovah hath blessed: 

28 And God give thee of the dew of heaven. 
And of the fatness of the earth, 

And plenty of grain and new wine : 

29 Let peoples serve thee, 

And nations bow down to thee : 

Be lord over thy brethren, 

And let thy mother's sons bow down to thee : 

Cursed be every one that curseth thee, 

And blessed be every one that blesseth thee. 

Some writers maintain that Esau was 39 years old when he 
sold his birthright to Jacob, one year before he married his 
Hittite wives. There are those also who maintain that Jacob 
married at the same age as Esau, or a little later; which would 
place the events of this chapter, which gave occasion for the 
flight of Jacob, a short time after the marriage of Esau, — 
opinions, both of them, which make little account of the facts 
and the dates furnished us by the Bible itself; for if Jacob 
fled to Padan-aram when 40 years old, and 20 years later re- 



326 GENESIS 

turned to Canaan (that is to say when 60), and went down 
to Egypt at 130 (ch. 47: 9), there will he nothing with which 
to occupy the 70 intermediate years; and it will be impossible 
to adjust the account with what we know of Joseph and his 
brethren. The commentator Adam Clarke places the marriage 
of Esau about 1804 B. C; and the trick by which Jacob robbed 
.him of the blessing, he puts at 1779 B. C. (that is to say 24 
years after the marriage of Esau; a time at which the two 
brothers would be about 65 years of age). According to the 
common chronology, given in the margin of our Bibles, the 
sale of the birthright took place about 1805 B. C, when Esau 
and Jacob were about 32 years of age, and the marriage of 
Esau with his two Hittites, eight years afterwards, 1796 B. C; 
and the theft of his blessing, 36 years after this, in 1760 
B. C; that is 44 years after the sale of the birthright. In all 
this the reader will see the uncertainty of a large part of the 
particular dates given in our Biblical chronology — except in 
the cases where the text itself furnishes us the data. It be- 
comes us to bear always in mind that in the Bible, in common 
with all ancient profane history, chronology (a point of so 
great importance to us) was esteemed of very little interest, 
and they did not always carefully guard even the chronological 
order of events. It is surely an error to hope to arrange minutely 
the chronology of the Bible when frequently there was no 
such order and arrangement in the mind of the writer. The 
only reason I can see for supposing that Jacob married at 40 
or 50 years of age, is found in the idea that an old man of 
70 years could not be the passionate lover that Jacob was 
of his beloved Rachel. Ch. 29: 20. But such argumentation is 
very insecure, and the age which they would assign to him is 
in complete disagreement with the subsequent history of Jacob 
and his sons. 

We have already spoken at considerable length of the great 
difficulties of the Hebrew chronology (Note 12, p. 72); but 
assuming its correctness in this case we have the following 
data with regard to Isaac and his family. The theft of 
Esau's blessing was the immediate occasion of the flight of 
Jacob to the house of Laban, the brother of his mother; Joseph 
was born 14 years after this date, when Jacob had, with 14 
years of personal labor, paid the dowry of his two wives, 
and when about to begin the six years of service with which 
he gained his property (ch. 30:25, 26; 31:41); Joseph was 
39 years old when Jacob and all his family went down to Egypt 
(ch. 41: 47; 45: 11); and at this very juncture (53 years after 



CHAPTER 27: 1—29 327 

Jacob's act of treachery towards Esau and his flight to Padan- 
aram), Jacob was 130 years old (ch. 47:9); and deducting 
the 53 years aforesaid, it appears that Jacob, when he fled 
to the house of Laban, was 76 years old (or 75 counting after 
the Jewish manner), 35 or 36 years after the marriage of 
Esau. As Isaac was 40 years old when his two sons were born 
(ch. 25: 26), he was at the time of Jacob's flight 135 years 
old; a time at which, according to vr. 1, he was blind; and 
as he died at the age of 180, it appears that he passed about 45 
years in blindness, before his death. 

According to the common chronology, then, 44 years had 
elapsed since Esau sold his birthright for a mess of pottage. 
It is possible that there had passed 50 years, or even more, 
for all that bad business wears the appearance of the follies 
of youth, rather than of the deportment of two men of 35 
or 40 years of age; and perhaps Esau considered that because 
the date was long since past, that act of youthful folly had by 
that time become a matter of little importance. Thus sinners 
always imagine it is with their former sins, of which they have 
not yet repented; — only because the distance of time has well 
nigh blotted out the remembrance of them. How forgetful are 
they that in the book of the divine remembrance, these, with 
all their aggravating circumstances, are as fresh and as clearly 
depicted as on the day of their commission! "They consider 
not in their hearts that I remember all their wickedness: now 
have their own doings beset them about; they are before my 
face." Hos. 7: 2. 

Esau (vr. 36), draws a distinction between the birthright and 
the blessing, and evidently he dreamed that although he had 
sold the former more than 40 years before, the other was his, 
and that he would certainly obtain it in its season; a vivid 
example of the extravagant belief of men, that the blessing 
will be theirs in the end, however long they persist in their 
"ways of destruction." The habitual thought of their mind is: 
"7 shall have peace, though I walk in the stubbornness of my 
heart." Deut. 29: 19. For us, the distinction which Esau makes 
did not exist, except in his own imagination: the birthright 
and the blessing were all one, the latter being nothing more 
than the public or official acknowledgment of the former by 
his father; so that selling the birthright, he sold the blessing 
likewise. Isaac and Rebekah undoubtedly had knowledge of 
the traffic which their elder son had made of his birthright, 
and it would seem that they shared in Esau's idea that the 
birthright and the blessing were separable things, so that the 



328 GENESIS 

younger might have the birthright and the elder the blessing; 
or if not (and this is the more probable), that the sale of the 
former would have no effect, until their father had given it 
validity and confirmation by the blessing which was to fol- 
low. 

It is clear that the two sons had little in common. Al- 
though children of the same birth, they were totally different 
in disposition; by occupation they were still more different. 
The manifest partiality of the two parents, each for the favorite 
son, made matters worse day by day; the cunning of Jacob 
had taken advantage of the frank and rude independence of 
Esau, in order to rob him of the birthright; worse than rob- 
bery, for he had made his brother to take part in his crime; 
and from that time, a period, we suppose, of 40 or 50 years, 
the two would have less than ever to do with each other; and 
in all this while they would be on the alert, and always waiting 
to see to which of the two the confirmatory blessing would 
fall. Rebekah was also on the watch day and night, to pre- 
vent its happening that some day her beloved Jacob would 
be deprived of the blessing, having already gotten his brother's 
birthright. Isaac, weak and timid by nature, and old, blind, 
incautious, he also had the blessing in reserve for his favorite 
son, his valiant and expert hunter. He knew well the divine 
oracle, given to the mother before the birth of the two sons: 

"Two nations are in thy womb, 

and two peoples shall be separated (= divided) even from 

thy bowels; 
and the one people shall be stronger than the other 

people; 
and the elder shall serve the younger" (ch. 25: 23); — 

he knew it, but he did not give due heed to it; or perhaps he 
did not wish to understand it in a sense unfavorable to his 
favorite son. 

Isaac was old, blind and sick. He must necessarily have been 
in greatly impaired health; for otherwise we cannot conceive 
how a man who had 45 years more of life before him, should 
have come to believe (an opinion in which all his family shared), 
that he had but a short time to live. Vrs. 1, 41. 

Impressed therefore with the idea that his life was soon 
to end, Isaac called his elder son one day, and begged him to 
take his weapons, his quiver and his bow, and go out to the 
field to hunt some venison for him, and make him savory food 
such as his father loved; in order that he might eat, and bless 



CHAPTER 27: 1—29 329 

him before his death. This again reveals to us the weak side 
of the poor old man. In ch. 25: 28, the only reason given for 
the partiality he had for his son Esau is that "he did eat 
of his venison." I see no reason why, when the Holy Scriptures 
speak without disguise of the weaknesses and sins of the saints 
of the ancient times, we should endeavor to cover them up, 
excuse them, or extenuate them. On the contrary, there are 
many reasons why we should call things by their right names, 
and endeavor to derive from them the spiritual profit and the 
important lessons, with a view to which they were written 
by inspiration of God, for instruction in all the ages of the 
Church. 

Seeing therefore that the hour so long waited for had ar- 
rived, Esau took his weapons and went out hurriedly. But 
his mother was listening while Isaac talked with him. The 
Hebrew text carefully indicates that this was not an accident; 
Rebekah "was listening," with full intent to hear what was 
said, and she saw that the critical moment had arrived when, 
as she viewed it, everything was to be gained or lost. Rebekah 
also knew the divine oracle, but like Sarah, in an evil hour 
for herself, she believed that (according to the common proverb 
of those who know little or nothing of the fidelity of Jehovah) 
"God helps those who help themselves," and that human ex- 
pedients are very necessary in order to give effect to the 
divine promises. See ch. 16: 1, 2. If Rebekah had had con- 
fidence in the divine oracle, that the "older shall serve the 
younger," she might well have followed tranquilly the path 
of duty, assured that God himself would give effect to hia 
word. He, in fact, fulfilled it, in spite of the great sin which 
Rebekah and her favorite son committed; but with many and 
lasting calamities for both of them. 

Her expedient was to call Jacob, inform him of all that was 
going on, and say to him that without the loss of a moment 
he should run to the fold and bring her two good kids, of 
which she would make the savory food which his father loved; 
and then, carrying it in to his father, before Esau's return, he 
would receive the coveted blessing. Jacob, who many years 
before, had taken advantage of his brother's urgent need, in 
order to make him sell his birthright, and forced him to confirm 
the sale with an oath (ch. 25: 31 — 33), had, it would seem, on 
the score of conscience, no scruples, and made no difficulty about 
acceding to his mother's proposal. He did not startle at its 
baseness. He suggested to his mother as his only difficulty, 
that although the poor old man could no longer use his eyes 



330 GENESIS 

to know him, he would perhaps take him by the hands to 
feel him, and would thus find out the deception that was prac- 
ticed on him; and so he, Jacob, as one who was mocking his 
father, would bring upon himself, not a blessing, but a curse! 
His mother, sagacious and crafty, told him to leave all that 
(including his curse) to her care, and only listen to her voice, 
and do as soon as possible what she commanded him. All the 
steps in this miserable imposture fill us with horror, and give 
us a pitiable idea of the weakness of poor Isaac, whose own 
wife and son expected to deceive him with so clumsy an artifice. 
Unhappy old man! 

[Note 25. — On the sins of Old Testament Saints. I believe 
it my duty to present without disguise, what the Bible depicts 
without any disguise, lest some inoautious reader fall into 
the error, into which many careless and superstitious per- 
sons fall, of believing that as these were the acts of the 
people of God, they were not really wicked; and that as the 
text does not condemn them in energetic terms, it is lawful 
to palliate them, if not to justify or imitate them. The ancient 
fathers and Roman Catholic expositors, with their mania for 
seeking mystical senses in everything, with much frequency 
fell, and yet fall, into this error. See the notes of Bishop Amat 
on vrs. 13 and 19 of this chapter. Romanism not only by 
its anti-christian doctrines and practices, but even by its ex- 
positions of the Bible, sinks deeper and deeper in the mire 
of infidelity multitudes of its own baptized children, who seek 
something of truth and sound reason in religion. If any reader 
is scandalized at seeing such hateful sins in the families of 
Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, let him banish for ever from his 
mind the idea of human merits, and see that God did not 
have for his object to recompense his ancient servants accord- 
ing to the good or evil of their conduct, but served himself of 
such instruments (the best no doubt he could find in the world), 
to carry out his own designs of mercy toward the ruined race of 
men, and begin to plant in a world of universal corruption 
those principles of righteousness and holiness whose fruits, 
immature as yet, we are now enjoying, and which will reach 
their complete fruition in the day of promise (2 Pet. 3: 13), 
whose advent Christ teaches us to pray for with daily supplica- 
tion: "Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, as in heaven so 
on earth." We who enjoy the light which shines in the world 
1900 years after Christ, instead of being scandalized by the 
imperfections and sins of those who 1900 years before Christ 
had scarcely begun to come out of the universal and dense 



CHAPTER 27: 1—29 331 

darkness, which then covered all the earth and all the nations, 
ought rather to consider out of what a horrible abyss of wick- 
ednesses God has now brought the nations which in some 
degree enjoy the innumerable benefits of his word. Well, right 
well, has the apostle John said: "The darkness is passing away, 
and the true light already shineth!" 1 John 2: 8. How then 
will it be when the darkness shall have completely and forever 
passed away, by the virtue and power of him who came to put 
away sin (Gr. for the abolition, or destruction, of sin) by 
means of the sacrifice of himself? Heb. 9: 26. See also the 
comments on the sin of Noah, in ch. 9: 24 — 27, and of Abraham 
in ch. 20: 1—7.] 

Jacob did as he was bidden, and Rebekah, who had it all 
arranged beforehand in her mind, covered his hands and the 
smooth of his neck with the skins of the kids, and clothing 
him with the most precious garments of Esau, which it seems 
she had by her in the house, redolent with the smell of the 
fields and woods in which he passed his life (due perhaps to 
the aromatic herbs with which he kept them), she placed in 
his hands the savory food now ready, together with the bread; 
and he presented them thus before his father, in order to re- 
ceive his blessing. Isaac, who did not recognize in his tones 
the voice of Esau, asks him who he is; and he, who had learned 
well his part, answers: "I am Esau, thy first-born. I have 
done as thou badest me; arise, I pray thee, sit up and eat of 
my venison, that thy soul may bless me!" The words "arise, 
sit up" confirm us in the belief that the poor old man was 
sick, or at least seriously ailing. But the distrust of Isaac 
had now been awakened; he asks him, therefore, how it is that 
he had so soon found the venison; and the crafty Jacob 
hypocritically answers (dishonoring thus the name and provi- 
dence of God) : "Because Jehovah thy God sent me good speed." 
Distrustful still, he made him come near to him, that he might 
feel him; and he said: "The voice is Jacob's voice, but the 
hands are the hands of Esau. And he discerned him not, 
because his hands were hairy, as his brother Esau's hands; and 
so he blessed him." But the poor Isaac, bewildered not only 
as to his sight, but now in mind as well, asked him helplessly 
for the last time: "Art thou my very son Esau?" And he, re- 
solved now to carry through his purpose, answered without 
hesitation: "I am!" The poor old blind man, worse bewildered 
than before, unable to detect the deceit that was being practiced 
on him, and without anybody he could make use of to know 
just what was passing, said to Jacob: "Bring it near to me, 



382 GENESIS 

and I will eat of my son's venison, that my soul may bless thee." 
And having eaten, Jacob brought him wine and he drank. He 
said to him at last: "Come near now, and kiss me, my son!" 
Jacob did so; and when Isaac smelled the odor of his raiment, he 
exclaimed: 

"See, the smell of my son, 

is as the smell of a field which Jehovah hath blessed! 

And God give thee of the dew of heaven," etc. 

The blessing of Jacob contained three things: 1st. Material 
prosperity — fruitful seasons and -abundant harvests. As it does 
not rain in Palestine during the months of summer, abundant 
dews come to supply, in favored parts, the lack of rain. The 
copiousness of these dews may be inferred from that which 
fell upon the fleece of Gideon, from which he wrung out a 
bowlful of water (Judg. 6: 38), and from the comparison which 
Hushai makes of an army which comes down upon the oppos- 
ing hosts "as the dew falleth upon the ground." 2 Sam. 17: 12. 
2nd. Power and dominion over peoples and nations, and the 
lordship of his brethren, — the children of his mother. As he 
had no other brother but Esau, the words can be understood 
of the descendants of each respectively — the form in which 
such promises and prophecies must be understood, as Esau was 
never personally subject to Jacob. 3rd. The two last lines 
of the blessing are merely a repetition, with a change of form, 
of the blessing which God gave originally to Abraham, in ch. 
12: 3: "I will bless them that bless thee and him that curseth 
thee I will curse;" and Baalam repeats it in almost the identical 
form, in spite of Balak's wishes and the desires of his own 
covetous heart, with respect of the people whom Balak had 
brought him to curse: 

"Blessed be every one that blesseth thee, 
and cursed be every one that curseth thee." Num. 24: 9. 
It is to be observed that this notable form of blessing is 
used exclusively of the people of God. And it is a fact, real 
and true until today, and will continue to be so eternally; not 
with regard to Churches or ecclesiastical establishments, but 
with reference to the true people of God. In Matt. 25: 31 — 46 
(that greatly misunderstood and misused passage), Jesus teaches 
us that in the last great day the destiny and final abode of 
men will turn on the attitude they have habitually maintained 
toward his true people; those whom he will, in that day, set 
at his right hand: — an infallible touchstone, which will determine 
the real attitude of each individual soul towards himself. 



CHAPTER 27: 30—40 333 

27: 30 — 40. esau's bitteb disappointment. (1760 b. c.) 

30 And it came to pass, as soon as Isaac had made an end of 
blessing Jacob, and Jacob was yet scarce gone out from the presence 
of Isaac his father, that Esau his brother came in from his hunting. 

31 And he also made savory food, and brought it unto his father; 
and he said unto his father, Let my father arise, and eat his son's 
venison, that thy soul may bless me. 

32 And Isaac his father said unto him, Who art thou? And he 
said, I am thy son, thy first-born, Esau. 

33 And Isaac trembled very exceedingly, and said, Who then is he 
that hath taken venison, and brought it me, and I have eaten of all 
before thou earnest, and have blessed him? yea, and he shall be blessed. 

34 When Esau heard the words of his father, he cried with an 
exceeding great and bitter cry, and said unto his father, Bless me, 
even me also, O my father. 

35 And he said, Thy brother came with guile, and hath taken 
away thy blessing. 

36 And he said, Is not he rightly named Jacob? for he hath sup- 
planted me these two times : he took away my birthright ; and, be- 
hold, now he hath taken away my blessing. And he said, Hast thou 
not reserved a blessing for me? 

37 And Isaac answered and said unto Esau, Behold, I have made 
him thy lord, and all his brethren have I given to him for servants ; 
and with grain and new wine have I sustained him : and what then 
shall I do for thee, my son? 

38 And Esau said unto his father, Hast thou but one blessing, 
my father? bless me, even me also, O my father. And Esau lifted 
up his voice, and wept. 

39 And Isaac his father answered and said unto him, 
Behold, of* the fatness of the earth shall be thy dwelling, 
And of the dew of heaven from above ; 

40 And by thy sword shalt thou live, and thou shalt serve thy 

brother ; 
And it shall come to pass, when thou shalt break loose, 
That thou shalt shake his yoke from off thy neck. 
*Or 3 away from. 

The two brothers almost met at the door, while the one went 
out and the other came in. Esau also had hastened as much 
as possible, and had prepared savory food, and brought it to 
his father; and with the genial frankness which characterized 
him, and a candor which suspected no evil, with sonorous voice 
he saluted his father, as he entered, with the ingenuous and 
cheerful invitation: "Let my father arise, and eat of his son's 
venison, that thy soul may bless me!" Isaac, surprised and 
stunned, received his salutation with the unlooked-for and dry 
inquiry: "Who art thou?" To which Esau replied, no doubt 
with altered voice: "I am thy son, thy first-born, Esau!" Now 
at last begins to dawn on the poor blind man the deceit which 
his younger son, aided by his mother, had practiced on him, 
and he trembles with a very great trembling. * Still confused, 
he inquires: "Who then is he that hath taken venison and 
brought it to me, and I have eaten of all before thou earnest and, 
have blessed him?" And remembering then the oracle of God, 



334 GENESIS 

and how, contrary to his own will and purpose, he himself 
had fulfilled it, he adds: "Yea, and he shall he blessed!" Jacob 
had feared with good reason that his father would discover 
the miserable trick of his mother, and would lay on him a 
curse instead of a blessing. Isaac in fact discovers, but too 
late, the imposture; but instead of endeavoring to revoke the 
blessing given so contrary to his own will, and persuaded at 
last of the designs of God, he adds slowly and thoughtfully: 
"Yea, and he shall be blessed!" 

The surprise and desperation of Esau are depicted in the 
text with such naturalness and skill that all human embellish- 
ments can but mar the beauty of the passage. Forty or 
fifty years before, to satisfy the clamors of his appetite, Esau 
had sold his birthright, with everything pertaining thereto 
(of which the blessing was a part), without its costing him 
one sigh, or even a thought: "And he ate, and he drank, 
and he rose up, and he went away. So Esau despised his birth- 
right!" Ch. 25: 34. But now with vehement desire, with con- 
vulsive sobs, and with a great and exceeding bitter cry, he 
endeavors to obtain what he then lost; but all in vain. It adds 
no little interest to this moving scene to remember that it 
was a man of seventy-five years who so uselessly weeps for 
what had once been his, but which he had sold with contempt; 
like so many other children of pious parents, bred up for the 
kingdom of God, who despise the heavenly gift, and exchange 
it gladly for any tempting morsel of sinful delight which 
Satan may set before them. Extremely moving are the words: 
"Hast thou not reserved a blessing for me?" — "Hast thou but 
one blessing, my father? bless me, even me also, oh my father!" 
To this the apostle refers in Heb. 12: 15 — 17: "Looking diligently 
lest any man come short of the grace of God; . . . lest 
there be any fornicator or profane person, as Esau, who for 
one morsel of meat sold his own birthright. For ye know that 
even when he afterwards desired to inherit the blessing, he 
was rejected; for he found (in his father) no place for a 
change of mind (Gr. repentance), though he sought it earnestly 
with tears." His father was on his side; his father earnestly 
desired to give him the blessing, for whom he had long held it 
in reserve; but in spite of all this, his father could not change, 
much less withdraw, what he had already said, knowing at 
last that such was the will of God. From this firm purpose 
of his, the cries, and sobs, and passionate entreaties of Esau 
could not move him; and it is very remarkable that Isaac, 
instead of soothing with soft words and expressions of equivocal 



CHAPTER 27: 30—40 335 

import the wounds he had made, seeing at last that he was 
speaking for God and not for himself, with great clearness said 
to him: "Behold I have made him thy lord, and all his brethren 
have I given him for servants; with corn and with wine have 
I sustained him, and what then shall I do for thee, my son?" 
As Esau persisted in his entreaty, begging that he would give 
him a second blessing, even though he had lost the first, his 
father at last relented, and gave him all he could, as the 
prophet of God, — a quasi-Messing, which in its temporal as- 
pect lacked little of the blessing which he had given to Jacob. 

The words "of the fatness of the earth" are by some trans- 
lated "away from the fatness of the earth," etc., with allusion 
to the dry lands of the mountain country of Seir, the land of 
Edom. But such a sense does not appear to me adequate to the 
occasion, nor in agreement with the facts of the case; because 
Esau voluntarily withdrew from Canaan to the mountain country 
of Seir, before Jacob returned from Padan-aram. Ch. 32: 3; 
36: 6, 7. And since the separation was made (as in the case 
of Abraham and Lot) in view of the immense numbers of 
their flocks and herds, it is clear that the land of Edom was 
well suited to the wishes of Esau and to his need, as a land 
abundant in pasturage, and not lacking in either the dew of 
heaven or the fatness of the earth. Even in our day, when 
the southern part of the land of Canaan is sadly lacking in 
both these things, the high lands of Edom, to the east of 
the Arabah, and to the south of the Dead Sea, "is rich in 
pasturage, abundant in trees and flowers, and brings to mind 
the memory of the blessing which Isaac gave to Esau: 'Be- 
hold thy dwelling shall be of the fatness of the earth and of 
the dews of heaven from above.' " Robinson's Biblical Researches, 
Vol 2, pp. 551, 552. Schaff's Bible Dictionary, Article Edom. 
If this part of the land of Edom is today so greatly superior 
to the south of Judah, we can readily conceive what it must 
have been when Esau chose it for himself, and when, at a 
later date, it had many and great cities, and a dense, powerful 
and warlike population. In respect to temporal advantages, 
the blessing of Esau is almost a repetition of that which Isaac 
gave to Jacob, except that the land of Edom was much smaller 
than the land of Israel, which was "the good land" which 
Jehovah promised to Abraham. There was also this difference, 
that Esau entered into the possession of his good things at 
once; whereas Jacob went down into Egypt, and his descendants 
did not come into possession of his for some 300 years or 
more. When Moses asked permission of the king of Edom 



336 GENESIS 

(=Esau) to pass through his territory, on his way from Egypt 
to Canaan, the land was abounding in planted fields and vine- 
yards. Num. 20: 17. In respect of riches and personal pos- 
sessions, then, it would seem that Esau did not come behind 
Jacob (ch. 36: 6, 7); and when Jacob wished that Esau, who 
had become reconciled to him, should accept some 600 head 
of cattle, which he sent him, Esau replied: "I have enough, 
my brother; let that thou hast be thine." Ch. 34: 9. And as 
regards military strength, Esau was much the more powerful. 
It is therefore a great error to suppose that Isaac's words made 
Esau the possessor of a dry land, sterile and of few resources, 
or that it deprived him of any class of temporal good. 

The words "by thy sword thou shalt live," indicate the war- 
like spirit of Esau and his descendants. But Isaac repeats 
yet again the words: "Thou shalt serve thy brother;" although he 
adds that, at last, "thou shalt shake his yoke from off thy 
neck." As Esau personally was never subject to Jacob, this 
subjection must be understood of his posterity. Under David 
and Solomon the kingdom of Edom was subject to Israel, and 
on several occasions it was subject to their successors; but 
Edom (or Esau) always freed himself, until he shook off en- 
tirely the yoke. Edom was always the unrelenting enemy of 
Israel, the hatred of the parents passing down to their children. 
The Prophecy of Obadiah (587 B. C.) was spoken against 
the people of Edom, at the time of the wars of Nebuchadnez- 
zar, because of their bitter hatred against Judah, because of 
their unseemly rejoicing at its calamities, and because of the 
treachery with which they slew those of the captives who fell 
behind in the desert (Obad. 10, 14); because of "the perpetual 
enmity''' Ezek. 35: 5. 

[It may be of interest to remark in passing, that Herod 
the Great, the last king of Judea, was a descendant of Esau, an 
Idumean by the side of both father and mother; and this cir- 
cumstance no doubt was the foundation for that irreconcilable 
hatred with which the Jews regarded him during his long reign, 
aggravated by his cruelties and other crimes, and in spite of 
his magnificent endowments and the great services he conferred 
on the nation. — Tr.] 

27: 41 — 46. with deadliest hatred, esau lays his plans to kill 

JACOB. (1760 B. C.) 

41 And Esau hated Jacob because of the blessing wherewith his 
father blessed him : and Esau said in his heart, The days of mourn- 
ing for my father are at hand : then will I slay my brother Jacob. 

42 And the words of Esau her elder son were told to Rebekah ; 
and she sent and called Jacob her younger son, and said unto him, 



CHAPTER 27: 41—46 337 

Behold, thy brother Esau, as touching thee, doth comfort himself, 
purposing to kill thee. 

43 Now therefore, my son, obey my voice ; and arise, flee thou to 
Laban my brother to Haran ; 

44 and tarry with him a few days, until thy brother's fury turn 
away ; 

45 until thy brother's anger turn away from thee, and he forget 
that which thou hast done to him : then I will send, and fetch thee 
from thence: why should I be bereaved of you both in one day? 

46 And Rebekah said to Isaac, I am weary of my life because 
of the daughters of Heth : if Jacob take a wife of the daughters of 
Heth, such as these, of the daughters of the land, what good shall my 
life do me? 

The effects of this cruel and impious fraud were what 
might have been expected. It seems that they were all look- 
ing for the early death of Isaac; which lends support to the 
supposition that he was at the time sick, or in very infirm 
health; but instead of the expected death of his father soften- 
ing the heart of Esau, he took encouragement therefrom to 
lay his plans to kill Jacob as soon as his father was dead: "The 
days of mourning for my father are at hand; then shall I 
slay my brother Jacob." So "Esau said in his heart"; but he 
did not avoid saying so with his mouth; of which, when his 
mother was advised, the watchful and quick-sighted Rebekah 
found herself "taken in her own craftiness;" and calling Jacob, 
she informed him that Esau was about to avenge himself by 
killing him, and that it would be necessary for him to go 
away for some time, in order to save his life. For the Orientals, 
vengeance is the most exquisite pleasure and the most precious 
consolation; and by this natural association of ideas this Hebrew 
verb nacham comes to signify, at the same time, to suffer, to 
lament, to be sorry, to repent, to console, and to avenge one's self. 
Valera and the English Versions say: "comfort himself," but 
to "avenge himself" comes nearer to our use and mode of ex- 
pression. Rebekah gained for her favorite son the coveted 
blessing, but in consequence thereof she was going to lose 
forever her beloved Jacob; although she little thought so. She 
had not understood, and did not yet understand the character 
of her brave, daring and resolute son Esau. It moves us with 
pity to hear the poor mother, always fertile in expedients, 
say: "Now therefore, my son, obey my voice; and arise, flee 
thou to Laban my brother, to Haran; and tarry with Mm a few 
days until thy brother's fury turn away; until thy brother's 
anger turn away from thee, and he forget that which thou 
hast done to him; then will I send and fetch thee from thence." 
Never during her lifetime did she find the favorable juncture 
to bring him home again. For twenty years Esau carried the 



338 GENESIS 

purpose of vengeance in his heart, and when Jacob returned 
from Padan-aram, under the safe-conduct of the Most High 
(ch. 31: 3; 32: 9), Esau went out to meet him with 400 armed 
men, with the purpose of shedding his blood. Ch. 32: 6. 

Rebekah's question: "Why should I be bereaved of you both 
in one day?" gives us a glimpse of the administration of justice 
in those times. As in the days of the patriarchs there were 
no written laws nor State tribunals, to judge and punish crimi- 
nals, every chief of a tribe or clan administered justice in his 
own manner. If Esau had killed Jacob while Isaac was alive, 
his own father would have had to judge and punish him; which 
was another reason, or the special reason, why Esau would 
attempt nothing against the life of his brother, until after 
the death of his father; when he himself would be the chief 
of the little State. This was then the desperate case in which 
Rebekah and her favorite son found themselves. But she 
was careful not to explain the situation to the old blind man. 
The Oriental mind and heart do every thing oy indirection, 
and she had other motives besides, for not explaining things 
to Isaac with the same liberty that she did to Jacob, her ac- 
complice in thie sin which placed them in this great strait. 
To Isaac, therefore, she presented the subject from a different 
point of view: "I am weary of my life because of the daughters 
of Heth; if Jacob take a wife of the daughters of Heth, such as 
these, of the daughters of the land, what good shall my life do 
me?" Vr. 46. 

CHAPTER XXVIII. 

VBS. 1 — 5. JACOB IS SENT AWAY TO PADAN-ARAM, OSTENSIBLY TO 
TAKE A WIFE OF HIS OWN KINDREDJ THE IMMEDIATE MOTIVE BEING 
TO PUT HIMSELF IN A PLACE OF SAFETY. (1760 B. C.) 

1 And Isaac called Jacob, and blessed him, and charged him, and 
said unto him, Thou shalt not take a wife of the daughters of 
Canaan. 

2 Arise, go to Paddan-aram, to the house of Bethuel thy mother's 
father; and take thee a wife from thence of the daughters of Laban 
thy mother's brother. 

3 And God Almighty bless thee, and make thee fruitful, and mul- 
tiply thee, that thou mayest be a company of peoples ; 

4 and give thee the blessing of Abraham, to thee, and to thy seed 
with thee ; that thou mayest inherit the land of thy sojournings, which 
God gave unto Abraham. 

5 And Isaac sent away Jacob : and he went to Paddan-aram unto 
Laban, son of Bethuel the Syrian, the brother of Rebekah, Jacob's 
and Esau's mother. 

It seems strange that Jacob, in the line of promise, and de- 
pendent on whom were the spiritual hopes of the world, should 



CHAPTER 28: 1—5 339 

remain unmarried for 30 or 35 years after the marriage of 
Esau. Ch. 26: 34. It is probable that his indolent and do- 
mestic disposition, without any spirit of enterprise, and little 
inclined to adventures of any kind, was responsible for that, 
and also that God, as is his wont, made use of the sins and 
calamities of Jacob and his mother, to force him into new 
relations. Why Isaac did not seek a wife for Jacob (and in 
fact for both of his sons), as Abraham had sent to Haran 
to take a wife of his own kindred for him, we cannot tell; 
but doubtless there were reasons for it. Perhaps the impatient 
and worldly spirit of Esau hindered it, in his case; and in the 
case of Jacob, the rivalries and jealousies existing between 
the two sons may have had the same effect. And when, at 
last, Jacob set out himself to go to Padan-aram, with this com- 
mission, why he should have to go afoot, empty-handed, with- 
out a servant, without a companion, his father being so rich and 
important a personage; and why his father should place him 
in the hands of the selfish and pitiless Laban, without re- 
sources, where he would suffer without any remedy the ex- 
actions of such a grasping kinsman, we cannot explain; but 
doubtless there were reasons, on the human side, for it; and 
on the divine side, God no doubt so arranged it, in order to 
apply a remedy to the many and grievous spiritual maladies 
of Jacob, and to bring him, sincerely converted, to the feet 
of his God. It is also probable, or certain, that the case did 
not admit of any delay, and that the secrecy which the cir- 
cumstances demanded did not allow of the accompaniment 
either of men or beasts. It is probable that his departure took 
place at night, without any one knowing anything about it, 
and that the secret was carefully kept for some days, until 
Esau lost the hope of overtaking him. However that may be, 
Jacob was sent away alone, and with great haste and sudden 
alarm. 

On sending him to Padan-aram, his father told him that he 
should marry a first-cousin, one of the daughters of his ma- 
ternal uncle, Laban. Abraham married his niece, or his half 
sister; Isaac married his first-cousin, and now he gives ex- 
press directions to Jacob for him to do the same; and this 
kind of marriage with near relatives is still very usual among 
the Jews. The father of Moses married his paternal aunt (Ex. 
6: 20; Num. 26: 59), — a thing which was afterwards prohibited 
by the law of Moses. The marriage of first-cousins is never 
forbidden by the Bible; but it is, by civil statute, in many of 
the States of the American Union; and it is generally regarded 



340 GENESIS 

as inexpedient, on account of the results which are often seen in 
the children of such marriages. 

On sending him away, Isaac blessed him, this time more 
sincerely and with deeper feeling than before, constituting 
him, as far as he could do it, heir of the great promise, and 
invoking upon him the richest blessings of God, including "the 
blessing of Abraham," and the possession of the land promised 
to him. It is worthy of repetition that Esau entered at once 
into the enjoyment of "his good things," as corresponded with 
his impatient and worldly character: Jacob, as he had to serve 
the divine purposes, incomparably higher, had to wait. Canaan 
was not to him personally anything more than "the land of 
his sojournings," which 400 years after the covenant made with 
Abraham (ch. 15: 13, 16), his descendants, under Joshua, came 
in to possess. 

28: 6 — 9. THE PRETEXT WHICH ESAU HAD FOB TAKING STILL 
ANOTHER WIFE. (1760 B. C.) 

6 Now Esau saw that Isaac had blessed Jacob and sent him away 
to Padclan-aram, to take him a wife from thence : and that as he 
blessed him he gave him a charge, saying, Thou shalt not take a wife 
of the daughters of Canaan ; 

7 and that Jacob obeyed his father and his mother, and was gone 
to Paddan-aram ; 

8 and Esau saw that the daughters of Canaan pleased not Isaac 
his father ; 

9 and Esau went unto Ishmael, and took, besides the wives that 
he had, Mahalath the daughter of Ishmael Abraham's son, the sister 
of Nebajoth, to be his wife. 

We cannot understand why Esau should come to believe that 
by marrying a daughter of his uncle Ishmael, he might remedy, 
in the opinion of his parents, the error which he committed 35 
years before, in joining himself in marriage with two Hittite 
women. Ishmael was the half-brother of his father, and Ma- 
halath was his first-cousin. She was the sister of Nebajoth; 
whose mention here gives us to understand that he was the 
most distinguished of the sons of Ishmael, a man well known 
in his day, and also assures us that there existed good relations 
between the two families. The harm of his former marriages 
was already done, and would not be diminished by his taking 
three wives instead of two; so that it looks like a mere pretext for 
following his own inclinations. His other wives were now old, 
and the daughter of Ishmael was no doubt young, and would 
have for him greater attractions than the daughters of Heth. 
The words "took unto the wives he already had," seem to carry 
a covert reproof of his conduct. Men of little conscience are 



CHAPTER 28: 10—15 341 

never at a loss for "good and weighty reasons" to do what their 
inclinations crave. 

28: 10 — 15. jacob in bethel, his dream. (1760 b. c.) 

10 And Jacob went out from Beer-sheba, and went toward Haran. 

11 And he lighted upon a certain place, and tarried there all 
night, because the sun was set ; and he took one of the stones of the 
place, and put it under his head, and lay down in that place to 
sleep. 

12 And he dreamed ; and, behold, a ladder* set up on the earth, 
and the top of it reached to heaven; and, behold, the angels of God 
ascending and descending on it. 

13 And, behold, Jehovah stood above it, and said, I am Jehovah, 
the God of Abraham thy father, and the God of Isaac : the land 
whereon thou liest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed ; 

14 and thy seed shall be as the dust of the earth, and thou shalt 
spread abroad to the west, and to the east, and to the north, and to the 
south : and in thee and in thy seed shall all the families of the earth 
be blessed. 

15 And, behold, I am with thee, and will keep thee whithersoever 
thou goest, and will bring thee again into this land ; for I will not 
leave thee, until I have done that which I have spoken to thee of. 

*3£. 8. V., a stairway. 

The mention of Esau's new marriage broke the thread of 
the story of Jacob's flight to Padan-aram; we resume it here. 
Vr. 10 informs us (which we did not know before) that the 
events now related took place in Beersheba, where Isaac and 
his family had probably resided since before the marriage of 
Esau with his two Hittite wives. See ch. 26: 23. Jacob set 
out from Beersheba, then, and he departed with haste and 
alarm. The prophet Hosea says with allusion to the distress 
and danger of Jacob at this point of his history: 

"Jacob fled into the country of Syria, 

and Israel served for a wife, 

and for a wife he kept sheep." Hos. 12:12. 

That was a precipitate flight of his, and the feelings which 
filled his heart are painted vividly in ch. 35: 1 and 3, where 
Jehovah told him, in a time of even greater distress, to go 
up to Bethel, and make there "an altar unto God who appeared 
unto thee when thou fleddest from the face of Esau thy brother"; 
Jacob also said to his people: "Let us arise and go up to 
Bethel; and I will make an altar there unto God who answered 
me in the day of my distress.'" That recollection of "the face of 
Esau" the cause of his mortal anguish, could never fade from 
the memory of Jacob. 

Having made the arrangements aforesaid with much haste 
and secrecy, in order that neither Esau nor any one else in 
the encampment should know of it, he set out with his staff 



342 GENESIS 

for his only companion (ch. 32: 10), at midnight, or long he- 
fore daylight, judging by the distance he traveled in that first 
day's journey. Beersheba was 25 miles from Hebron, and Hebron 
was 20 miles south of Jerusalem, and Bethel, 12 miles to the 
north of Jerusalem — 57 miles in all, if he took this route; and 
the history tells us that he arrived there at night-fall on the 
first day of his long journey; for evidently he had that vision 
in Bethel on the night of the first day. He was there near 
to the city or town of Luz; but for the frightened fugitive 
the outlying country had greater attractions than the town; 
and he slept in the open field. In all that long first day's 
journey he would often look backwards to see if Esau with 
his avenging sword, or his far-reaching arrows was coming 
in pursuit of him. Panting, therefore, hungry and utterly ex- 
hausted, he took one of the stones of that place, and putting 
it for his hard pillow, he lay down on the cold ground; but 
instead of dreams of the terrifying "face of Esau," he had 
there visions of God! He dreamed a dream which forever must 
be memorable in the annals of God's people. If for us this 
story never loses anything of its vivid interest, how much more 
for Jacob, and for the godly of those remote times, before a 
page had been written of those Scriptures which illumine 
us with their great light! Heaven! What did Jacob and those 
of his day know about heaven? Jehovah had come down to 
talk with Abraham, and had even partaken of the hospitality 
of his tent; but what did Abraham know about heaven? Doubt- 
less he knew more than we suppose; but for the pious servants 
of God in those remote times, this dream of Jacob (which 
was no fantasy of his, but a true revelation of God and of 
his mercy towards men) came to shed a flood of light upon 
the certainty of such a place, the facile communication there 
was between heaven and earth, and the profound interest which 
God and holy angels felt in the affairs of men. Jacob dreamed: 
and behold a stairway (not "a ladder"), broad and convenient, 
whose base was upon the earth, and its top reached to heaven, 
upon which numerous companies of angels passed each other, 
ascending and descending! This serves as a commentary upon 
the words of Paul, or an example of what he says in Heb. 
1: 14: "Are they not all [the angels] ministering spirits sent 
forth to do service for the sake of them that shall inherit 
salvation?" or those of Jesus: "I say unto you there is joy 
in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that re- 
penteth." Luke 15: 10. But that which more than anything 
else called his attention was the circumstance that above it 



CHAPTER 28: 10—15 343 

Jehovah himself was standing, and spoke to him, saying: "I 
am Jehovah, the God of Abraham thy father, and the God of 
Isaac;" and he confirmed to him the covenant already made 
with them, not merely with regard to the possession of that 
land, but that "in him and his seed all the families of the 
earth should be blessed." Thus God, with his own hand, traces 
the line of the promise, and unfolds and widens the scope of 
the primordial promise with regard to the seed of the woman. 
Gen. 3: 15. 

In those ancient times, one and the same promise embraced 
these two things, which for us, of Gentile race, are widely 
different; and well has Paul extended the promise with re- 
gard to that land, so as to embrace "the inheritance of the world" 
(Gr. kosmos), for all the spiritual children of Abraham, whether 
Jews or Gentiles (Rom. 4:13, 16 — 18); according as Jesus 
himself teaches us, that "the meek shall inherit the earth," 
in the day when "the kingdom shall come, and the will of 
God be done, as in heaven, so on earth" (Matt. 5: 5 and 6: 10); 
and also that in the last Judgment Day, the righteous shall be 
placed in possession of the kingdom prepared for the just (rather 
than for sinners) "from the foundation of the world." Matt. 
25: 34. 

In the tender compassion of our God, he desired not only 
that the frightened Jacob should derive security and comfort 
from the repetition and confirmation of these great promises 
in his own person, but he accommodated the relief to the part 
where the danger and distress was most pressing, promising 
him that he himself would be the companion of his solitary 
journey, and of his long absence from the paternal home; and 
that he would keep him wherever he should go, and would 
bring him again in safety to that land of his fathers; because 
he would not leave him until he had fulfilled all that he had 
promised with regard to him. 

We naturally ask, "What had the fugitive Jacob done to ob- 
tain for himself so great promises and so opportune succor 
from God? No answer can be given but this: "Nothing!" 
Cunning trickster that he was, an artful supplanter, and at 
that very hour a fugitive in consequence of the just resentment 
of his frank and fearless brother, towards whom his attitude 
had always been that of a rival and a competitor, aspiring to 
rob him of the prerogatives which were his by the right of 
primogeniture. The plain and extremely important lesson is 
that Jehovah was not dealing with Jacob according to his 
merits or demerits, but that he was carrying forward his own 



344 GENESIS 

plans of mercy towards a world of wholly unworthy sinners, 
of whom Jacob was one, and whom he was thus drawing to 
himself by these great mercies. In the last day, God will 
reward every man "according to his works." But not before. 
Matt. 16: 27; Luke 14: 14; Rom. 2: 6—16; 2 Cor. 5: 10. It 
is most important that we always keep before us the fact 
that neither with the wicked nor with the righteous does God 
now deal on the footing of an exact and faithful administrator 
of justice, but rather as the compassionate God of a salvation 
which we do not deserve, and which in general we do not even 
seek, till arrested by his grace. 

"But he, being full of compassion, forgave their iniquity 

and destroyed them not; 
yea, many a time turned he his anger away, 
and did not stir up all his wrath; 
for he remembered that they were but flesh; 
a wind that passeth away, and cometh not again." 

Ps. 78: 38, 39. 
"He hath not dealt with us after our sins, 
nor rewarded us according to our iniquities; 
for as the heavens are high above the earth, 
so great is his mercy toward them that fear him; 
as far as the east is from the west, 
so far hath he removed our transgressions from us." 

Ps. 103: 10, 11. 

It is plain that Jacob was still a worldling, completely a 
stranger to the life of God and the practice of piety; and Je- 
hovah thus began with him that long series of special providences, 
by means of which he not only carried forward his glorious 
plans of mercy toward the ruined race of man, but by the 
manifestation of his goodness and love, he brought him per- 
sonally to the experimental knowledge of the grace and salvation 
of God. 

28: 16 — 22. jacob awakes in amazement, his vow. (1760 b. c.) 

16 And Jacob awaked out of his sleep, and he said, Surely Jehovah 
is in this place ; and I knew it not. 

17 And he was afraid, and said, How dreadful is this place ! this is 
none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven. 

18 And Jacob rose up early in the morning, and took the stone 
that he had put under his head, and set it up for a pillar, and poured 
oil upon the top of it. 

19 And he called the name of that place Beth-el :* but the name of 
the city was Luz at the first. 

20 And Jacob vowed a vow, saying, If God will be with me, ana 

•That is. The house of God. 



CHAPTER 28: 16—22 345 

will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat, and 
raiment to put on, 

21 so that I come again to my father's house in peace, and Jehovah 
will be my God, 

22 then this stone,t which I have set up for a pillar, shall be God's 
house : and of all that thou shalt give me I will surely give the tenth 
unto thee. 

f Or, then shall Jehovah he my God, and this stone, etc. 

This dream and this revelation, so different from all the 
revelations of himself which God had till then made in the 
history of the human redemption, produced in Jacob (as the 
vision on the way to Damascus did on Saul of Tarsus, Acts 
ch. 9) an indescribable effect. Beautifully natural, and life- 
like in the highest degree, is the exclamation with which he 
awakes: "Surely Jehovah is in this place, and I knew it not!" 
"How dreadful is this place! this is none other than the house 
of God, and this is the gate of heaven!" Exclamations which 
carry on their very face the seal of their exact truth and au- 
thenticity. 

Jacob probably did not sleep any the rest of that night; but 
rising up early in the morning, he took the stone which had 
served him as a pillow, and set it up for a pillar, and poured 
oil upon the top of it. It is difficult for us to assign a satisfac- 
tory reason for this act of Jacob's. There are so many super- 
stitions that in later times have been associated with stones, 
and the veneration and worship of stones reputed to be mi- 
raculous has heen so common among the nations, that it is 
a thing as easy as it is unjust to attribute to this act of 
Jacob's a use and signification which at least approaches to 
those Gentile superstitions which are so often condemned in 
the word of God. It is probable that Jacob, who was dis- 
tinguished for the pillars (or monuments) which he erected 
during his life-time (see vr. 22; ch. 31: 45; 35: 14; 35: 20), 
set up this stone, which was suitable for that purpose, without 
any superstitious motive, and erected it as a monument in 
the place where God had so highly favored him; and as he 
could not then and there offer a sacrifice and pour out drink 
offerings, as was the custom of those times (because he was 
going in great haste), from his scant supply he poured oil upon 
it, as a sign of consecrating it to God, — a use and signification 
of anointing with oil which dates from very ancient times. 
Some 30 years, more or less, after this, when Jacob returned 
to Bethel, to fulfil his vow, he offered there great sacrifices 
(see ch. 35:7 and comments); and when Jehovah appeared 
to him a second time, and repeated and confirmed the covenanted 



346 GENESIS 

promises, Jacob erected in more enduring form another pillar 
"in the place where God had spoken to him," "a pillar (or 
monument) of stone, and poured out a drink offering thereon, 
and poured oil thereon." Ch. 35: 14. That which particularly 
calls our attention here is the fact that "Jacob's stone," which 
has been the object of so many ridiculous stories and so many 
superstitions, is not mentioned: we are not told whether he 
so much as found it there on the second occasion or not; or 
whether it entered as a component part, or any part what- 
ever, of "the pillar of stone" which on the second occasion 
he erected there: the sacred historian did not regard it of 
sufficient importance to tell us anything about it; which of 
itself is enough to refute those silly stories which some yet 
seek to accredit by means of this passage, and Gen. 49: 24. 

He gave also to the place the name of Beth-el (=The house 
of God) ; although before that, and for many ages after, it 
bore among the Canaanites the name of Luz. Judg. 1: 23 — 26. 
When the Israelites took possession of the land of Canaan, 300 
years after this (some say 500), the name Bethel wholly sup- 
planted the old name of Luz. 

Jacob also made there a vow, before he continued his jour- 
ney; a vow which although he delayed long to fulfil it, Jehovah 
did not forget, but made Jacob to remember it on two occasions 
of very bitter trial for him, and told him that he kept it fresh 
in mind, and demanded fulfilment. Ch. 31: 13 and 35: 1. 

This is the first vow of which we have any mention in the 
Scriptures, and the subject is deserving of a little attention 
before we pass on. Vows are either general— like the public 
vows of the people of Israel in the ancient times (Num. 21: 2) 
or those of Christian people in baptism and the Lord's supper — 
sacraments which are also vows; or they are particular, with 
reference to some special thing which an individual promises 
to do. Vows were very common under the Old Testament. In 
the New Testament they are mentioned only twice: in Acts 
18: 18, where "Paul had shorn his head in Cenchrea, because 
he had a vow;" and Acts 21: 23, 24, where Paul took at his 
charges four men who had a vow; in order to pay the cost of 
the sacrifices and other expenses of the ceremonial observance: 
but both of these were vows under the law of Moses, in which 
Paul took part in order to disarm the prejudices of the Jews; 
and they had nothing whatever to do with primitive Chris- 
tianity. Besides these, there is no mention whatever of vows 
in the New Testament; from which we infer that the particular 
vow is lawful under the Christian dispensation, but is nowhere 



CHAPTER 28: 16—22 347 

recommended, and it would appear that it was never practiced 
as a Christian institution. In this matter of vows, that is 
to say, of particular vows to do or not to do such and such 
a thing, we can profit by the wise maxim of Solomon, in Ecc. 
4: 4, 5: "When thou vowest a vow unto God [for it should 
be made to no other], defer not to pay it; for he hath no 
pleasure in fools: pay that which thou hast vowed! Better 
is it that thou shouldst not vow, than that thou shouldst vow 
and not pay." The general and sacramental vows to love and 
serve God, are enough for all the intents of the Christian life; 
nor were any vows but these practiced during many centuries 
of the Christian Church. Neither Bingham in his "Ecclesiastical 
Antiquities" nor Cavalario in his "Derecho Canonico" mention 
the matter of particular vows for many ages after the Chris- 
tian Era. In fact, Cavalario says in Part 1, Ch. 41, Sec. 1, that 
"in the ancient discipline, the monks made no vow whatever" 

The whole system of vows and "promises," which forms a 
distinctive feature of Romanism, is not merely aside from the 
Christian system, but is totally contrary to it. Vows to the 
saints, "promises" to some one or other of the many "Virgins" 
of their "advocation," vows of celibacy, of poverty and obe- 
dience (not to God, but to an ecclesiastical superior), are out 
and out the institutions of men, which have for their object 
and effect to cast down the institutions of God. Comp. Mark 
7: 6 — 13. Let it be borne in mind that the vow is never men- 
tioned in the New Testament, except as an observance of the 
old Levitical law, which was about coming to its close, and 
it will be seen in a moment that this wide department of the 
Romish system is in great part Jewish, and in another great 
part pagan, but in nothing Christian. 

[Note 26. — On Jacob's Vow. The vow of Jacob is severely 
criticised by some, as revealing the cautious and trafficking 
spirit of the man; who instead of accepting, after the manner 
of Abraham, with joyful confidence, the great promises which 
Jehovah had given him unconditionally, interposes his own doubts 
in the conditional form of his vow: "If God will be with me," 
etc., "then Jehovah shall be my God," etc. At first sight, the 
criticism seems to be well founded, but it is not really so, or 
not so much as it would seem. The conditional Hebrew "im" 
which is translated "if," expresses likewise various other re- 
lations, such as, "so then," "since," etc.; (see Job 14: 5, "seeing 
his days are determined," etc., A. V. and R. V.), and is more 
vague and of wider application than "if" in English. Jacob 
also was but a novice in the things of God; he had as yet no 



348 GENESIS 

experience in the ways of Jehovah, and with this vision began 
the slow work of his conversion to God; and if his language 
does express some uncertainty, it is that of one who for the 
first time receives a communication from heaven. His words 
express the joyful acceptance of the divine promise and revela- 
tion, rather than distrust and the desire to hind God with con- 
ditions about what he had promised unconditionally; and they 
may be translated: "Since then God will ~be with me, etc., etc., 
Jehovah shall therefore he my God" etc. If this had been a 
conditional vow, Jacob would have waited 20 years to see how 
Jehovah fulfilled his part, before taking him as his God; whereas 
it is clear that from that moment, Jehovah became the God of 
Jacob, and that locality came to be for him, and for his, a place 
peculiarly holy, as the site in which Jehovah had twice re- 
vealed himself to his servant Jacob. Such seems to be the 
meaning of his words with regard to Bethel (=House of God), 
and not that he would build there a house for Jehovah, nor 
that there he would establish an altar for the national worship 
of Jehovah. This did not happen till Jeroboam placed there, 
in Bethel, the principal for his golden calves (1 Kings 12: 32, 33) ; 
and it is probable that he alleged that this fulfilled to the letter 
the vow of Jacob. 

With regard to the tenth of all that God should give him, 
which Jacob promised to pay to Jehovah, it is probable that 
he paid it once, and once for all, in an enormous hecatomb 
which he offered there seven or eight years after his return from 
Padan-aram. The fact is that Jacob delayed so long to fulfil this 
part of his vow, that God took occasion from the rape of his 
daughter Dinah, together with the horrible vengeance taken by 
her brothers and the imminent danger that the Canaanites would 
combine for the extermination of Jacob and his race and tribe 
(chs. 34 and 35: 1), to remind him of his forgotten ^vow, and 
sent him to Bethel, as a place of secure abode, where he should 
fulfil that forgotten vow. And there he built an altar "to the 
God who had answered him in the day of his distress," and 
there he fulfilled his vow. Ch. 35: 1 — 7. The attempt is as 
futile and forced, as it is frequent, to base on the example 
of Abraham (see the comment on ch. 14: 20), and on that of 
Jacob in this place, the obligation to pay tithes. Abraham 
and Jacob paid tithes only once; the former, "the tenth part 
of the spoils" taken in war (Heb. 7: 4), and the latter the 
tenth part of the flocks and herds he had acquired in Padan- 
aram; but they did not continue to do so year after year; 
and as they had no temples to build, nor order of priests to 



CHAPTER 28: 16—22 349 

support, nor religious institutions to maintain, nor poor to pro- 
vide for (since they were masters and proprietors of all that 
people, and bound to look after their subsistence), it is clear 
that there was no one for them to pay tithes to, nor any object 
in which to employ them, year after year, in religious worship. 
See comments on ch. 31: 13 and 35: 1 — 3. 

[Translator's Note 3. — On the Tithe. Those over-zealous 
Protestants who have been anxious to fasten on the Evangelical 
Church, or on the consciences of individual Christians, the "Law 
of the Tithe" seem not to have examined carefully the history 
of the question. The Roman Catholic canonist, Domingo Cava- 
lario, in his Derecho Canonico" (Part II. Ch. 34) says that "in 
the first ages, the ministers of the altar were sustained by the 
voluntary contributions of the faithful." As this source of 
revenue gradually dried up, with the decline of the primitive 
type of Christianity, the Jewish tithe law was appealed to to 
supply the deficiency, as being of divine obligation still; and 
by the 8th century it was very generally established in Europe, 
and enforced by civil and canonical laws. He says that "the 
tithe was not admitted in the Oriental Church, or if admitted, 
it was afterwards abolished." It is easy to see that except 
for its tithes, "first fruits" and other compulsory contributions, 
the civil and political power of the Romish Church, and its 
mighty corruptions, could never have reached the pitch they 
did at and before the time of the Reformation. Christ based 
his Financial System on the principle of voluntary contributions; 
intending that his people's love to his Person, and their belief in 
his Kingdom, should be the exact measure of their pecuniary 
sacrifices for his sake. Under such a system, the past and 
present oppressions of the Papal Church would be simply im- 
possible: no other Church but the Roman ever enacted the Law 
of the Tithe. 

The following points about the Mosaic tithe law can be easily 
maintained: 

First, That the Mosaic tithe was marked by this evangelical 
feature, that it was entirely voluntary. The Papal Church in 
the days when it had the civil power to back it, had always 
tithe collectors, and it farmed out this, like any other branch 
of revenue. Moses, on the contrary, made no provision what- 
ever for collecting tithes; each individual paid his tithes, or 
not, as he pleased; "none did compel." See Deut. 26: 14; Mai. 
3: 10. 

Second. The tithe was a land-tax (which God claimed as the 
great Land-owner, Lev. 25: 23) on the produce of the soil and 



350 GENESIS 

the increase of the cattle; and there is no indication in the 
Bible that any hut land-owners ever paid it. It was paid to 
the tribe of Levi expressly on the ground that they had no part 
in the division of the land of Israel. Num. 18: 20 — 24; Deut. 
10: 9; 12: 12. Yet they had the "suburbs" of 48 cities, which 
extended 1,000 yards ("2000 cubits") in every direction out- 
side of the city wall, "for their cattle, and their substance, 
and their beasts"; which was no small "possession" in itself 
(Num. 35: 1 — 7), aside from the perquisites of their office, which 
were generous. In the days of Christ, the priests were the 
wealthy class of the community, and seemingly more numerous 
than the Levites. 

Third. The Mosaic tithe was no cast-iron Institution, sacred to 
the use of the Levites, and which it would be sacrilege to use 
for any other purpose. On the contrary, the people were allowed 
and expected to furnish themselves therefrom (and from the 
firstlings of their flocks and herds as well), and eat thereof 
before the Lord, as an act of worship, when they went to 
attend the great feasts. Deut. 12: 17, 18; 14: 22, 23. The allega- 
tion sometimes made that this has reference to a second tithe, 
or even a third, has nothing to stand on, except the groundless 
assumption that "all the tithe of the land" belonged to the 
Levites, and that no part of it could be diverted to any other use. 
On the contrary Moses says: "All the tithe of the land is the 
Lord's; it is holy unto the Lord" (Lev. 27: 39), and only in a 
general way did he give it to the Levites and priests, requiring 
his people also to eat a part of it before him, in the place 
"where he recorded his name to dwell there." It would be as 
reasonable to try to make out a second set of "firstlings" of 
the flocks and herds (of which also they were to eat before him), 
on the ground that God claimed the firstlings of the flock and 
herd as his, and they were to be given to the priest. An honest 
tithe of the produce of the twelve tribes of Israel would have 
been vastly more than the Levites' share; and that without the 
trouble of working for it.* Christ's "yoke was easy and his 
burden light" to his willing and obedient people, under the Old 
Dispensation as well as under the New. 

"The Law of the Tithe," so far as I can learn from the 
Bible, was a very different thing in Moses' hands from what 
many persons suppose: and yet it has no place whatever in 
the Financial System of Jesus Christ. The rule of a tenth all 

*"The tithe of the land" alone in the United States, to say nothing of 
its arts, manufactures, mines, commerce, trades, professions, etc., if 
claimed by and paid to the churches and their ministers, as of divine ob- 
ligation would be more than sufficient to ruin them all.—Tv, 



CHAPTER 29: 1—8 351 

around impeaches the wisdom as much as the mercy of God. 
To say that the railroad magnate and the poor widow; the 
wealthy planter and the "one-horse-farmer"; the successful and 
the unfortunate man; the baker, the butcher, the doctor, the 
lawyer, the small shopkeeper and the merchant prince; the clerk, 
the day-laborer, the "coal baron," the great landed proprietor; 
the prosperous banker, the great or small manufacturer, the 
millonaire and the multi-millionaire, are all alike bound by "the 
law of the tithe," is to attempt to father the mistakes of earnest 
and misguided men on the infinite wisdom of God. Christ claims, 
not his people's tenth, but their all; claims it from the poor- 
est of them, as well as the richest; but it lies with the judgment, 
the piety and the discretion of each individual, and his choice as 
well, to determine what part of it he will spend on his Master 
and Lord, and what part on himself; remembering the account 
"the steward" will have to render at last as to how he has spent 
his Lord's money. Proportionate giving (wherever possible), is 
of first-class importance in Christian living; but the proportion 
must be left where God has left it. Paul lays down this general 
principle that governs the whole subject: "Every one as he hath 
purposed in his heart, so let him give — whether the twentieth, or 
the tenth, or two-tenths, or five-tenths, or nine-tenths — not grudg- 
ingly or of necessity; for God loveth the cheerful giver." 
2 Cor. 9: 7.] 

CHAPTER XXIX. 

VES. 1 — 8. JACOB JOYFULLY CONTINUES HIS JOURNEY. HIS MEETING 
WITH THE SHEPHERDS OF HARAN. (1760 B. C.) 

1 Then Jacob went on his journey, and came to the land of the 
children of the east. 

2 And he looked, and, behold, a well in the field, and, lo, three 
flocks of sheep lying there by it ; for out of that well they watered 
the flocks : and the stone upon the well's mouth was great. 

3 And thither were all the flocks gathered : and they rolled the 
stone from the well's mouth, and watered the sheep, and put the 
stone again upon the well's mouth in its place. 

4 And Jacob said unto them, My brethren, whence are ye? And 
they said, Of Haran are we. 

5 And he said unto them, Know ye Laban the son of Nahor? And 
they said, We know him. 

6 And he said unto them, Is it well with him? And they said, 
It is well : and, behold, Rachel his daughter cometh with the sheep. 

7 And he said, Lo, it is yet high day, neither is it time that the 
cattle should be gathered together : water ye the sheep, and go and feed 
them. 

8 And they said, We cannot, until all the flocks be gathered to- 
gether, and they roll the stone from the well's mouth ; then we water 
the sheep. 



352 GENESIS 

In the Hebrew, vr. 1 begins thus: "And Jacob lifted up his feet 
and went," etc. The most natural sense of this (following imme- 
diately as it does upon the vision of the preceding chapter), is that 
in the joy of that interview with the God of his father (the first 
he ever had), and the great promises which he had made him, 
Jacob journeyed with light feet the rest of that long journey 
(something like 500 miles), which he had scarcely begun, and 
soon reached its end; or if not so soon as he would have desired, 
the journey seemed short in view of the satisfaction he carried 
within his bosom; much like what is told us in vr. 20, that the 
seven years he served Laban, for his daughter Rachel, "seemed 
to him but a few days, for the love that he had to her." A Jew- 
ish commentator says that "his heart lifted up his feet." The 
same phrase, or one like it, is used in Ps. 74: 3: "Lift up thy feet 
unto the perpetual desolations"; which seems to say: "Come 
quickly, to see and remedy our woeful lot!" 

Jacob reached Haran without knowing where he was; but see- 
ing a well in the field and three flocks lying about it, waiting for 
the hour of watering, he asked, and he learned from the shepherds 
that he had at last reached the end of his journey. It is possible 
that this was not the same well where the steward of Abraham, 
a hundred years before, met with Rebekah (ch. 24: 11, 13); or if 
it was the same, that in the time which had elapsed it had varied 
much in form; because then it was a "fountain," and Rebekah 
went down by steps and brought up the water in her pitcher, and 
continued to go down and up until she had watered the ten 
camels (ch. 24: 16, 22) ; whereas here the mouth of the well was 
closed with a stone placed over it, in order to protect the precious 
supply of water. 

The salutations which passed between the shepherds and Jacob 
are of interest, as indicating the courteous address which was 
usual in that day. True politeness is not tied to place or time. 
On asking of them information about Laban, they told him he was 
well, and informed him that his daughter Rachel was just then 
coming with her father's sheep. 

29: 9 — 14. rachel the shepheedess. (1760 b. c.) 

9 While he was yet speaking with them, Rachel came with her 
father's sheep ; for she kept them. 

10 And it came to pass, when Jacob saw Rachel the daughter of 
Laban his mother's brother, and the sheep of Laban his mother's 
brother, that Jacob went near, and rolled the stone from the well's 
mouth, and watered the flock of Laban his mother's brother. 

11 And Jacob kissed Rachel, and lifted up his voice, and wept. 

12 And Jncob told Rachel that he was her father's brother, and 
that he was Rebekah's son : and she ran and told her father. 



CHAPTER 29: 9—14 353 

13 And it came to pass, when Laban heard the tidings of Jacob 
his sister's son, that he ran to meet him, and embraced him, and 
kissed him, and brought him to his house. And he told Laban all 
these things. 

14 And Laban said to him, Surely thou art my bone and my flesh. 
And he abode with him the space of a month. 

- The fact that the beautiful Rachel was the shepherdess of her 
father's flock seemingly indicates, (1) that her father's cattle in- 
terest was small, if a woman, and apparently one woman, could 
manage it all; (2) that the sons of Laban put off the work of 
caring for the flock on their younger sister; for there is nothing 
to indicate that they were not old enough, or that they were 
younger than their sister; — at a later period, when the 
flocks were more numerous, they took charge of them (ch. 
30:35); (3) that the morals of those simple folk must have 
been good, and the estimation in which they held the honor and 
virtue of women must have been high, for a young and beautiful 
woman, like Rachel, to expose herself to the hazards of pastoral 
life without continual risk. But the personal habits of people 
make a great difference in their national customs. We know that 
among many primitive peoples (and among some modern ones), 
the honor of a woman is worth more than her life, and the man 
who does violence to it exposes himself to the gravest conse- 
quences; of which ch. 34: 1 — 7, 31 brings us a frightful and hor- 
rible example; and under such circumstances women know how to 
take care of themselves, and men learn to respect them accord- 
ingly. In Ex. 2: 16 — 17 we find the seven daughters of Jethro, 
the priest-prince (or prince-priest) of Midian, taking care of the 
sheep of their father, among rude shepherds who understood noth- 
ing of courtesy. Among the ancient Greeks it was also the usage 
that the daughters of princes often performed the same office; 
and even today, among the Arabs of the desert, unmarried women 
expose themselves without harm to the same class of dangers. 
The gist of it lies in the much or little esteem in which the honor 
and purity of woman is held, and the responsibility that is thrown 
on her to take care of them: a lesson which it were well that 
our evangelical women in Latin America and elsewhere learn 
soon and thoroughly. See comments on ch. 34: 31. 

On seeing the beautiful young woman, and learning the near 
relationship which united them, the feelings of Jacob overcame 
him completely : "When Jacob saw Rachel, the daughter of Laban, 
his mother's brother, and the sheep of Laban, his mother's brother, 
he went near and rolled the stone from the well's mouth, and 
watered the flock of Laban, his mother's brother" ; phrases all 
which attest the flood of tender memories which, in that moment, 



354 GENESIS 

rushed upon the mind of the favorite son of Rebekah; — "his 
mother!" and from that moment the beautiful Rachel would be 
ever associated with that passionately fond mother that he was 
never more to see; so that without taking counsel of social usages, 
and obeying only the impulses of his heart, Jacob, in the first 
place, after watering her flock, impressed a kiss upon her lovely 
face, and wept with effusion; and afterwards he entered into ex- 
planations as to his strange behavior, telling her who he was, 
and of the close relationship which authorized such liberties at his 
first interview with her. Jacob was at this time about seventy- 
five years of age; Rachel was perhaps twenty; but this did not 
prevent that on his part there should thus commence here a story 
of love and tenderness the most romantic and tragic recounted in 
sacred history. As to Rachel herself, we need ask nothing; for in 
matrimonial affairs the women of the East were and still are 
taught to do as they are bidden. 

[We note, in vr. 12, that Jacob calls his uncle Laban his 
"brother" — near kinsman; and, in vr. 15, that Laban also calls 
Jacob his "brother." — Tr.] 

Thoroughly surprised and frightened, Rachel runs to carry the 
news to her father's house; Laban runs to meet the son of his 
sister; he embraces him, and brings him home, where Jacob gives 
the news of all the family, and in particular tells him of "all 
these things"; that is to say, of the precipitate flight, of the cause 
of it, and, in general, of what had happened to him in the way. 
Tender and beautiful (although in ill accord with the character 
of the hard, rapacious and artful Laban) was the reply which 
he made to this story of Jacob's: "Surely thou art my bone and 
my flesh!" The phrase "flesh and 'bone''' in the Bible always sig- 
nifies the nearest and most enduring relationship (Gen. 2: 23; 2 
Sam. 19:12, 13; Eph. 5:30; comp. Luke 24:39) :— "flesh and blood" 
is altogether a different thing, and signifies human nature con- 
sidered as corrupt and fallen; it is a symbol of corruption (Matt. 
16: 17; 1 Cor. 15: 50; Eph. 6: 12); so that the two phrases ought 
never to be confounded. 

29: 15 — 20. jacob makes a contract with laban fob his daugh- 
ter RACHEL TO BE HIS WIFE. (1760 B. C.) 

15 And Laban said unto Jacob, Because thou art my brother, 
shouldest thou therefore serve me for nought? tell me, what shall thy 
wages be? 

16 And Laban had two daughters : the name of the elder was Leah, 
and the name of the younger was Rachel. 

17 And Leah's eyes were tender ; but Rachel was beautiful and 
well-favored. 



CHAPTER 29: 15—20 355 

18 And Jacob loved Rachel ; and he said, I will serve thee seven 
years for Rachel thy younger daughter. 

19 And Laban said, It is better that I give her to thee, than that 
I should give her to another man : abide with me. 

20 And Jacob served seven years for Rachel : and they seemed unto 
him but a few days, for the love he had to her. 

Jacob spent a month with Laban as a visitor; but he did not 
pass it idly, as is evident from the words of Laban, at the end of 
the month: "Because thou art my brother, shouldst thou there- 
fore serve me for naught? tell me what shall thy wages be?" 
Jacob's past life, according as the Bible reveals it to us, had been 
a life of indolence, without ambition and without effort; he had 
passed it "seated among the tents," or at most in some womanish 
occupation. Ch. 25: 27 — 29. But after he had encountered alone 
the perils of the desert, no less terrible then than now (Ezra 8: 
22), and had entered the house of Laban and set his heart on 
Laban's younger daughter, God began to apply the remedy to 
this deeply rooted vice of his former life. Voluntarily, therefore, 
he occupied himself with various services during the month he 
passed as Laban's guest. 

Laban had two daughters, grown women, but unmarried, and 
therefore young; for they had not yet been sought in marriage 
(vr. 19), and there was "good money" in unmarried daughters. 
Of his sons we only know that fourteen years afterwards they 
were occupied with the care of their father's sheep (ch. 30: 35); 
and since Laban was as old, if not older than Jacob's mother (ch. 
24: 50, 51, 55), his sons were certainly much older than their 
unmarried sisters. Leah, the elder daughter, if not homely, had 
at least some affection of the eyes which gave her a more or less 
repulsive aspect. The phrase "Leah was tender-eyed" is disputed; 
but there seems to be no good reason to abandon the old and well 
accredited translation of "tender-eyed," or "sore-eyed," as Amat 
renders it. Some of the rabbins have maintained that Leah was 
much given to meditation and prayer, and that by reason of her 
many tears, her eyes had become inflamed; and that for her piety 
Jehovah had given her the preference above her beautiful sister. 
But this is purely a rabbinical conceit. The Bible tells us nothing 
of the kind; and Leah was certainly born and bred an idolatress 
and a pagan. See comments on ch. 31: 19, 20, and 35: 2. Her 
tender eyes were no doubt a natural defect, as the extreme beauty 
of Rachel was natural. The English translation "beautiful and 
well favored" does not bring out the exact sense of the Hebrew, 
which is, as given in the Modern Spanish Version, "of a handsome 
figure and beautiful countenance" — two things that go to consti- 
tute the perfection of beauty, both in women and men. With 



356 GENESIS 

these identical words the Hebrew text describes the manly beauty 
of the son of Rachel, Joseph, in ch. 39: 6. From the first day, 
therefore, Jacob, who came to Haran for the purpose of seeking a 
wife among the daughters of Laban, had already made his choice; 
and in the act he answered Laban: "I will serve thee seven years 
for Rachel, thy younger daughter!" 

It appears to us unaccountable that Jacob, whose father was 
rich and recognized as a great man in the land of Canaan (ch. 
26: 13 — 16), and who seemingly would have had no difficulty in 
making the fact undubitably certain that he was the son of 
Isaac and Rebekah, should find himself in the necessity of paying 
so dearly the dowry of a wife; and that, to the brother of his 
mother, who without a single day's delay had consented to send 
her off with the steward of Abraham, to be the wife of Isaac. Ch. 
24: 50, 51. Those ten camel-loads of the choicest of Abraham's 
possessions appear to have made the difference, in those days, 
when the husband, or his family, paid the dowry to the father 
of the woman; instead of the woman (as in our day is the frequent 
custom) bringing the dowry to the husband. Isaac well under- 
stood the Oriental usage, and could hardly have believed that 
Jacob would obtain a wife from among the daughters of his 
uncle, without paying the inevitable dowry; which varied in 
quantity according to the quality and resources of the suitor. 
Perhaps Isaac did not dare to send after him the dowry which 
would give effect to his solicitation; perhaps he could not do it 
before the question of the birthright was settled and it was de- 
termined what part of the estate would fall to each of his sons; 
perhaps it was (and this is the more probable) that the blind 
passion of Jacob, singular in a man of his age, and his impatience 
to make sure of the woman of his choice, did not allow his father 
time; for without waiting for his father to have notice of his safe 
arrival, he at once took advantage of Laban's question to rush into 
his ill-advised offer and engagement to serve him seven years for 
his daughter Rachel, — an agreement which for fourteen years 
placed him completely in the power of a pitiless master, "whose 
tender mercies were cruel." Perhaps also Laban, who in a month's 
time had become perfectly well acquainted with the blind passion 
of his nephew, had already traced out this plan to gain a most 
useful worker without cost to himself; but in any case, the work- 
ing out of this matter was of the Lord, who chose his own means 
for the conviction, the conversion and the salvation of Jacob, put- 
ting him in the hands of a man even more rapacious, more cal- 
culating, more astute, and less scrupulous than he himself had 
been. 



CHAPTER 29: 21—30 357 

It was and is still said to be the custom among the Orientals 
(the Bedouin Arabs, for example), to give the daughter in mar- 
riage to the first near kinsman who claims her, amongst those 
who may legitimately take her; and the first-cousin always has 
the most privileged claim to the hand of his cousin; provided the 
dowry he pays be satisfactory, and there be no other impediment; 
which well explains the prompt reply of Laban: "It is better that 
I give her to thee, than that I should give her to another man; 
abide with me"; with which words he concluded and closed the 
business, which was truly a good bargain for him, and a very bad 
one for Jacob; but just there entered the rod of correction for his 
many and great sins. Any other man in Haran might have 
married Rachel, if Jacob had not claimed her, by means of the 
payment of fifty sheep, or six camels, or a dozen cows; while 
Jacob bargained for seven years' service of a slave, and paid them 
with fourteen years of such service (ch. 31: 38 — 42); and under 
the favoring hand of God, he caused the few sheep that Rachel 
had tended to grow into a great multitude. Ch. 30: 30. Beautiful 
and touching is the declaration that "Jacob served seven years for 
Rachel; and they seemed to him but a few days, for the love he 
had to her." Vr. 20. In our day such a lover would have died of 
impatience in much less than seven years; but the Orientals were 
and are of a different disposition, and know how to wait calmly 
for many years, in order to effect a purpose, whether of love or of 
vengeance, on which the heart is set. 

29: 21 — 30. the bitter disappointment that overtakes jacob, 
who, monogamist as he was, greatly against his whl finds 
himself in possession of two wtves, instead of one only. 
(1753 b. c.) 

21 And Jacob said unto Laban, Give me my wife, for my days are 
fulfilled, that I may go in unto her. 

22 And Laban gathered together all the men of the place, and 
made a feast. 

23 And it came to pass in the evening that he took Leah his 
daughter, and brought her to him ; and he went in unto her. 

24 And Laban gave Zilpah his handmaid unto his daughter Leah 
for a handmaid. 

25 And it came to pass in the morning that, behold, it was Leah : 
and he said to Laban, What is this thou hast clone unto me? did not I 
serve with thee for Rachel? wherefore then hast thou beguiled me? 

26 And Laban said, It is not so done in our place, to give the 
younger before the first-born. 

27 Fulfil the week of this one, and we will give thee the other also 
for the service which thou shalt serve with me yet seven other years. 

28 And Jacob did so, and fulfilled her week : and he gave him 
Rachel his daughter to wife. 

29 And Laban gave to Rachel his daughter Bilhah his handmaid 
to be her handmaid. 



358 GENESIS 

30 And he went in also unto Rachel, and he loved also Rachel 
more than Leah, and served with him yet seven other years. 

But before his seven years had expired, the astute Laban had 
other plans laid. Jacob's management and service had been so 
profitable to him (ch. 30: 27 — 30), that without having any pity 
for the poor man, he devised the most cruel deception that a 
demon could invent or a Laban execute, and which left the un- 
happy Jacob without any recourse whatever, except to bow his 
head submissively, and serve his father-in-law fourteen years, in- 
stead of seven, in order to get possession of the woman he loved: 
not that he served the second period of seven years before taking 
Rachel, but he gained possession of her under promise of seven 
years more of the service of a slave; a promise which he was 
obliged to fulfil, under penalty of finding himself deprived of 
both wives and of all the property he may have acquired. Ch. 
31: 31 — 42. We do not know whether Laban had in mind the 
tricks and deceits by which Jacob had robbed Esau of his birth- 
right and his blessing; but God doubtless had them in view, and 
he made Jacob to reap accordingly as he had sown, and during 
the twenty years he spent in the house of Laban, he doubtless 
often brought it to Jacob's remembrance, in order to bring him to 
repentance for these and all his sins. 

When the term of the first seven years had expired, Jacob 
claimed from Laban the possession of the woman for whom he had 
toiled with patient hope. Laban readily consented to this, and 
celebrated the marriage of his daughter with a great feast, to 
which he invited "all the men of the place" ; according to the usage 
of those times; the women did not participate in the feast, or in 
the ceremony either — if there was any ceremony. It would seem 
that there was none, any more than there was in the case 
of Isaac and Rebekah. Ch. 24: 67. The wickednesses of men 
have made necessary both civil laws and religious rites in connec- 
tion with marriage, which among us ought to be always observed. 
It is clear that in the case of Jacob there was no ceremony, nor 
any marriage vows. All the guests knew that it was the marriage 
feast of Jacob and Rachel. Jacob had paid the dowry, and very 
dearly, and the woman was his property, without anything 
further; and Laban had no choice but to deliver her person, in 
order that Jacob might have her in complete possession. So it is 
that Rachel and Leah speak of the matter in ch. 31: 14, 15: 
"And Rachel and Leah answered and said unto him: 'Is there yet 
any portion or inheritance for us in our father's house? Are we 
not counted of him strangers? For he hath sold us, and also hath 
quite devoured our money.' " Matrimonial vows are only pro- 



CHAPTER 29: 21—30 359 

nounced between free persons. Rachel was not free, but bought 
and paid for; neither was Leah free, except to do her father's 
bidding. And in fact, in Hebrew the only word (and an unfre- 
quent one) for "husband" is "baal," which signifies owner and 
lord, See Isa. 62: 5. 

Everything went well in the marriage feast of Jacob and Rachel, 
Until the conclusion of it, when the cunning Laban carried Leah, 
completely covered with her veil, to the tent of Jacob; and in 
silence and darkness she came to be the wife of the deceived lover 
of Rachel. 

The excuse which Laban offered when the next day Jacob re- 
proached him bitterly for the deceit he had practiced on him, may 
possibly have some appearance of truth, according to the custom 
which is said to obtain among the Hindus, that both the sons and 
the daughters ought to marry in the order of their birth; but there 
is nothing in the Bible which goes to show that there was any 
such usage among the Hebrews, or among the pagans, except in 
this place; and here it is evidently a falsehood in its principal 
part, if not altogether. If it were not so, the elder would likewise 
have to be bargained for before the younger; or at least the 
younger would have to be promised on condition of the previous 
marriage of the elder. The dowry having been paid, there was 
neither usage nor law that would tolerate the exchange of one 
daughter for the other, any more than the exchange of one ox or 
ass for another, after the price agreed upon had been paid. Jacob 
had lived seven years in that country; sufficient time to have be- 
come acquainted with its customs, and to know whether he could 
marry the younger daughter or not; something, too, which would 
have also called the attention of the guests, if such had been the 
usage in Haran. The commentators who accept for truth the alle- 
gation of Laban, little know how much easier it was and is for the 
Orientals to lie than to speak the truth. Laban had traced out his 
plan — a plan which left Jacob no remedy except to be silent and 
submit. Jacob was completely in the power of Laban, and was 
as far from the possession of the beloved Rachel as he was when 
he made his ill-advised contract seven years before; and though 
he did not wish to serve seven days for the possession of Leah, he 
found himself in the necessity of serving seven years more, 14 
years altogether, to gain possession of Rachel. He accepted, 
therefore, with ill grace, the iniquitous terms which Laban im- 
posed upon him, of fulfilling Leah's week, giving thus his public 
consent to his union with her; after which Laban gave him 
Rachel also, on the express condition that he was to continue 
his past service for seven years longer: and Jacob took Rachel, 



360 GENESIS 

apparently without any marriage feast, or any marriage ceremony. 
This remark, which I frequently repeat, will not he needless among 
Roman Catholic peoples, who believe that marriage is a sacra- 
ment, and that its validity consists in the rite or the form with 
which it is celebrated, and the power and intention of the cele- 
brant. Until the day of his death, Jacob did not regard any 
woman but Rachel as his rightful and proper wife; and not with- 
out good cause (see ch. 44: 27. Comp. ch. 33: 2); and until his 
dying day his heart still burned in singular tenderness toward this 
woman, then more than 40 years dead. Ch. 48: 7. On their mar- 
riage, Laban gave to Leah his servant Zilpah as her waiting- 
maid: and to Rachel he gave Bilhah. 

29: 31 — 35. leah bears four sons to jacob, and rachel none. 
(From 1752 to 1749 b. c.) 

31 And Jehovah saw that Leah was hated, and he opened her 
womb : but Rachel was barren. 

32 And Leah conceived, and bare a son, and she called his name 
Reuben : for she said, Because Jehovah hath looked upon my afflic- 
tion ; for now my husband will love me. 

33 And she conceived again, and bare a son : and said, Because 
Jehovah hath heard that I am hated, he hath therefore given me this 
son also ; and she called his name Simeon. 

34 And she conceived again, and bare a son ; and said, Now this 
time will my husband be joined unto me, because I have borne him 
three sons : therefore was his name called Levi. 

35 And she conceived again, and bare a son : and she said, This 
time will I praise Jehovah : therefore she called his name Judah ; 
and she left off bearing. 

All the six sons of Leah and one daughter were born before 
Joseph, whose birth did not occur till after Jacob had completed 
his fourteen-year contract, and just before he began a new arrange- 
ment with Laban. Ch. 30: 25 — 34. The seven children of Leah, 
therefore, were born in the space of seven years. Jacob married 
at the end of the first seven years he had spent with Laban; 
Joseph was born at the end of his fourteen years of service; after 
which he made his contract for the last six years of service, in 
which he gained his property; and Joseph was the youngest of 
the eleven children born in Padan-aram; so that the Bible shows 
that children were born to Leah with extraordinary rapidity, — one 
each year, for seven consecutive years. 

We have already observed, and more than once, the particular 
providence of God in the reproduction of the human race, as is 
expressly declared in Ps. 127: 3 and John 9:2, 3. We have also 
called attention to the little difference which the Bible makes be- 
tween what God does directly and indirectly; that is to say, by his 
immediate power, or by the interposition of second causes. If it 



CHAPTER 29: 31—35 361 

be the purpose of God and part of his plan, it little matters what 
are the means by which he effects it, be they many, or few, or 
none whatever. The distinction is for us important; but in view 
of the pantheistic tendency of the day to refer nothing to God, 
which can be accounted for by secondary causes, it is often yet 
more important to lose sight of the distinction (as is seen in vr. 
31 and ch. 30: 2), and say with Jesus: "Your heavenly Father 
maketh his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sendeth 
rain on the just and the unjust"; and, "If God so clothe the grass 
of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is cast into the oven, 
how much more will he clothe you, oh ye of little faith?" Matt. 
5: 45. 

"Whatsoever Jehovah pleased, that hath he done, 

in heaven and in earth, in the seas and in all deeps." 

Ps. 135: 6. 

"And Jehovah saw that Leah was hated," and he gave her the 
compensation and happiness of bearing children; but Rachel was 
barren. After the horrible imposture which Laban had practiced 
on Jacob, and in which Leah, whether contrary to her will, or 
with her full consent, took a principal part, it was not humanly 
possible that he should fail to hate her. If therefore he regarded 
her with indifference before, on seeing and knowing the infamous 
deception by which they had wounded him in so tender a part, 
he could not regard her with less than undissembled repugnance; 
which it cost him many efforts and long years to overcome. Those 
commentators, therefore, lose their time who would draw from this 
text of the Bible the inference that the word "hate" is sometimes 
used in the sense of to love less* The Oriental manner of con- 
tracting marriage makes the love of husband and wife a thing 
little known among them (see comment on ch. 24:67); how 
much more, then, in the case of Jacob and Leah? The names 
which she gave successively to her first four sons, and in fact to 
all her seven children, clearly reveal the thought which continually 
occupied her heart, — some means of winning the love of her hus- 
band. She called the first "Reuben" which means to say "Behold 
a son!" The second: "Simeon," which means "Heard!" the 
woman was asking God for children. The third, "Levi" — "Union" 
or "United with," making clear every time the thirst of her heart 

*This, I imagine, is not maintained seriously, but only as an awkward 
attempt to explain the difficult words of Christ, in Luke 14 : 26. But there 
the supposed disciple is to "hate his father, and his mother," etc., only 
in the same sense as he is to "hate his own life also"; and this, only in 
the same sense as Samson's wife said to him : "Thou dost hut hate me, 
and lovest me not!" (Judg. 14 : 16) ;— "because, forsooth, he would not do 
as she wanted him to do ! — Tr. 



362 GENESIS 

for some part of the tenderness which Jacob lavished upon the 
beloved but barren Rachel. In some respects this reminds us of 
the case of Elkanah and Hannah, the mother of the prophet 
Samuel. 1 Sam. 1: 2 — 8. In those days when a numerous family 
was regarded as a special favor and gift of God, Leah could not 
understand why her husband should not love her, at least for the 
children she bore him. The fourth, therefore, she called "Judah" 
(= Praise), exclaiming: "Now will I praise Jehovah!" 

CHAPTER XXX. 

VES. 1 — 13. JACOB WITH FOUE WIVES, INSTEAD OF ONE ONLY. 

(From 1749 to 1747 b. c.) 

1 And when Rachel saw that she bare Jacob no children, Rachel 
envied her sister ; and she said unto Jacob, Give me children, or else 
I die. 

2 And Jacob's anger was kindled against Rachel : and he said, Am 
I in God's stead, who hath withheld from thee the fruit of the 
womb? 

3 And she said, Behold, my maid Bilhah, go in unto her; that 
she may bear upon my knees, and I also may obtain children by her.* 

4 And she gave him Bilhah her handmaid to wife : and Jacob went 
in unto her. 

5 And Bilhah conceived, and bare Jacob a son. 

6 And Rachel said, God hath judged me, and hath also heard my 
voice, and hath given me a son : therefore called she his name Dan. 

7 And Bilhah Rachel's handmaid conceived again, and bare Jacob 
a second son. 

8 And Rachel said, With mighty wrestlings have I wrestled with 
my sister, and have prevailed : and she called his name Naphtali. 

9 When Leah saw that she had left off bearing, she took Zilpah 
her handmaid, and gave her to Jacob to wife. 

10 And Zilpah Leah's handmaid bare Jacob a son. 

11 And Leah said, Fortunate ! and she called his name Gad. 

12 And Zilpah Leah's handmaid bare Jacob a second son. 

13 And Leah said, Happy am I ! for the daughters will call me 
happy : and she called his name Asher. 

*lleb. be builded by her. 

Jacob who was the most passionate of lovers, and who was a 
monogamist by conviction and preference, saw himself by cir- 
cumstances forced to become a polygamist, and in possession of 
four different wives. Rachel regarded with envy the increasing 
family of her sister; and her desperation increased to such a 
pitch that she said to Jacob: "Give me children, or else I die!" 
Jacob wearied with the petulance and complaints of his wife, an- 
swered her angrily: "Am I in God's stead, who hath withheld 
from thee the fruit of the womb?" To remedy the case, Rachel 
made use of Sarah's expedient (ch. 16: 2, 3), and gave to her 
husband her servant Bilhah, in order to "build herself up" (ac- 
cording to the Hebrew phrase) by her means, in the understanding 



CHAPTER 30: 14—21 363 

that the mother being her slave, the child would he hers also. 
It is the same word that Sarah uses in ch. 16: 2; and it is im- 
portant to bear in mind this use of the phrase "build herself up," 
or "build her house"; for there are passages in the Bible which 
cannot be properly understood without the use of this key. See 
Ruth 4: 11; Prov. 14: 1. 

Out of the family of Abraham, God chose only one; out of the 
family of Isaac, only one; but it was time that the family should 
begin to expand itself, in order to become a nation; and in the 
family of Jacob we find "the twelve patriarchs" (Acts 7: 3), the 
heads of "the twelve tribes of Israel." With a view to this, God 
made use of the emulation of the two sisters, in the work of 
"building the house of Israel." Ruth 4: 11. Rachel obtained her 
object in having a son by her servant Bilhah, and under the im- 
pression that God had at last done her justice, she called him 
"Dan" (—Judge or Judged), — to do justice to one being the most 
common sense of "to judge" in Hebrew. See Ps. 43: 1; Luke 18: 3, 
7. Again she bore him a son, whom Rachel named Naphtali, 
(—My wrestling), saying "With mighty wrestlings (Heb. wrest- 
lings of God) I have wrestled with my sister, and have prevailed!" 
r— words which bear testimony to the vehemence of the envy that 
consumed her; and the variance and strifes of the two mothers 
were of evil augury for the peace of the numerous family that was 
being founded. 

Leah, not to see herself overtaken in this rivalry of "building 
the house of Israel," took her servant Zilpah and gave her to 
Jacob for his fourth wife; and she bore him a son, whom Leah 
called "Gad" (= Good fortune), exclaiming: "Fortunate!" Others 
who give to Gad the sense the word has in ch. 49: 19, "a troop," 
give as her exclamation: "A troop cometh!" which probably 
would express her desire of numerous and valiant posterity. 
When Zilpah gave her another son, she called his name "Asher" 
(= Happy), exclaiming "How happy am I! for the daughters will 
call me happy." 

30: 14 — 21. LEAH HAS TWO MOEE SONS AND ONE DAUGHTEB. 

(1748-1745 b. c.) 

14 And Reuben went in the days of wheat harvest, and found 
mandrakes in the field, and brought them unto his mother Leah. Then 
Rachel said to Leah; Give me, I pray thee, of thy son's mandrakes. 

15 And she said unto her, Is it a small matter that thou hast taken 
away my husband? and wouldest thou take away my son's mandrakes 
also? And Rachel said, Therefore he shall lie with thee to-night for 
thy son's mandrakes. 

16 And Jacob came from the field in the evening, and Leah went 
out to meet him, and said, Thou must come in unto me ; for I have 



364 GENESIS 

surely hired thee with my son's mandrakes. And he lay with her 
that night. 

17 And God hearkened unto Leah, and she conceived, and bare 
Jacob a fifth son. 

18 And Leah said, God hath given me my hire, because I gave my 
handmaid to my husband : and she called his name Issachar. 

19 And Leah conceived again, and bare a sixth son to Jacob. 

20 And Leah said, God hath endowed me with a good dowry ; now 
will my husband dwell with me, because I have borne him six sons : 
and she called his name Zebulun. 

21 And afterwards she bare a daughter, and called her name 
Dinah. 

On the supposition that Dinah was born but little before Joseph, 
he being born when Jacob had finished fourteen years of the 
twenty he served Laban (vrs. 25 — 28; ch. 31: 41), Reuben would 
at that time be about six years of age. The mention of the wheat 
harvest, in which time mandrakes ripen, gives us to understand 
that Jacob and Laban did not occupy themselves exclusively in the 
raising of cattle, but that they took some part in the cultivation 
of the soil. The "mandrakes" which Reuben found in the field 
and brought to his mother, is a word, which in Hebrew signifies 
"love apples," for their supposed virtue in promoting the con- 
ception of children; an opinion which still exists in Oriental coun- 
tries. This- gives a particular significance to Rachel's request 
that Leah would give her a part of the mandrakes of her son; 
and the hard reproof which Leah administers in response to her 
petition, together with the agreement that the two entered into, 
give a sad proof of the petulance and selfishness of Rachel, and of 
the complete control which she at that time exercised over the 
mind and the person of Jacob. This time it is Leah who envies 
her sister, who had taken exclusive possession of the husband. 
Vr. 17 bears testimony as to how the afflicted Leah besought of 
Jehovah children and more children: "God hearkened unto 
Leah," and she bore a fifth son to Jacob, in addition to the two she 
had given him by her servant Zilpah. It is singular how she, 
in the ignorance of her scanty spiritual illumination, converts into 
a meritorious good work her having given to her husband her 
maid-servant for a wife. So far was she from regarding polygamy 
as a sin, that she accepted this new son as a recompense which 
God had given her for so excellent a work! an ideal which she 
incorporated with the name "Issachar (—"Hire" or "Recom- 
pense") which she gave him. There are still a multitude of opin- 
ions and judgments which men hold, expecially in questions of 
morals and religion, which are not less extravagant than this of 
Leah, although they regard them as very correct. Once more 
Leah gave birth to a son, and, sighing always for the good she had 
not yet obtained, she said: "God hath endowed me with a good 



CHAPTER 30: 22—36 365 

dowry; now will my husband dwell with me, because I have borne 
him six sons! and she called his name Zebulon —"Dwelling." 
Once more she became a mother; but this time a daughter was 
born, whom she called "Dinah" (=" Judged, or Vindicated," the 
feminine form of "Dan") ; thinking always on the justice which 
God, if not man, had done her. 

With regard to the delicate (or "indelicate") matters treated of 
in this paragraph, and some others of the chapter (and of the 
book as well), which serve for the scandal of unreflecting or ill- 
intentioned persons, it will be sufficient to remind the reader that 
these histories were not written from the point of view of the 20th 
century of the Christian Era, but in the realistic style of the 
simple people of past ages; and it would have been a great pity 
to deprive the people who lived 3000 or 4000 years ago of the style 
and usage proper to their country and their day, in order to meet 
the views of the cultured and the uncultured people of this 20th 
century of grace. Persons of real culture and good sense in our 
day, who wish to derive profit from what in ancient times the 
Holy Spirit was pleased to have written for the instruction of 
all ages, will know how to accommodate themselves to the uses 
and circumstances of remote times, without being scandalized 
that the ancients did not, in their social intercourse, speak and 
act in our present accepted style. 

30: 22 — 24. rachel is at last a mother (1745 b. c.) 

22 And God remembered Rachel, and God hearkened to her, and 
opened her womb. 

23 And she conceived, and bare a son : and said, God hath taken 
away my reproach : 

24 and she called his name Joseph, saying, Jehovah add to me 
another son. 

Seven years of reproach and of impatient waiting she had 
borne, and her first exclamation bears witness to her immense 
satisfaction on seeing "her reproach among men taken away" 
Luke 1: 25. She called him "Joseph" (—"Will add"), saying: 
"Jehovah will add to me another son"; manifesting thus the 
force of her passion to have children; without even suspecting 
how much that second son was to cost her. Ch. 35: 18. 

30: 25 — 36. the new contract which jacob makes with laban. 

(1745 b. c.) 

25 And it came to pass, when Rachel had borne Joseph, that Jacob 
said unto Laban, Send me away, that I may go unto mine own place, 
and to my country. 

26 Give me my wives and my children for whom I have served 
thee, and let me go : for thou knowest my service wherewith I have 
served thee, 



366 GENESIS 

27 And Laban said unto him, If now I have found favor in thine 
eyes, tarry: for I have divined that Jehovah hath blessed me for thy 
sake. 

28 And he said, Appoint me thy wages, and I will give it. 

29 And he said unto him, Thou knowest how I have served thee, 
and how thy cattle have fared with me. 

30 For it was little which thou hadst before I came, and it hath 
increased unto a multitude ; and Jehovah hath blessed thee whither- 
soever I turned:* and now when shall I provide for mine own house 
also? 

31 And he said, What shall I give thee? And Jacob said, Thou 
shalt not give me aught ; if thou wilt do this thing for me, I will again 
feed thy flock and keep it. 

32 I will pass through all thy flock to-day, removing from thence 
every speckled and spotted one, and every blackf one among the 
sheep, and the spotted and speckled among the goats : and of such 
shall be my hire. 

33 So shall my righteousness answer for me hereafter, when thou 
shalt come concerning my hire that is before thee : every one that is 
not speckled and spotted among the goats, and blackf among the 
sheep, that, if found with me, shall be counted stolen. 

34 And Laban said, Behold, I would it might be according to thy 
word. 

35 And he removed that day the he-goats that were ringstreaked 
and spotted, and all the she-goats that were speckled and spotted, 
every one that had white in it, and all the blackf ones among the 
sheep, and gave them into the hand of his sons ; 

36 and he set three days' journey betwixt himself and Jacob : and 
Jacob fed the rest of Laban's flocks. 

' *Heb. at my foot. [fA. V. brown.] 

For the first time in fourteen years Jacob was a free man. He 
had at last escaped from the ill-made engagement in which his 
imprudent precipitation to secure possession of his beloved 
Rachel, had involved him. He had now four wives and twelve 
children, eleven sons and one daughter, but nothing more. Not- 
withstanding this, Joseph was hardly born when Jacob resolutely 
demanded that Laban send him away, in order that he might re- 
turn to his own country and the house of his father. He doubt- 
less counted upon "the part of the goods" of his father which 
was to "fall to him," as the younger son. Luke 15: 12. In any 
case, he wished as soon as possible to get away from the house, 
and the power, and the presence of that man who had always 
behaved so unjustly toward him. Laban, however, who knew by 
experience the value of the labors of his son-in-law, or as he 
himself expresses it, how much Jehovah had blessed him for 
Jacob's sake (vr. 27), did not wish to terminate an association 
which had been so advantageous to himself; and, speaking as 
to his own equal, he tells him to name his wages and that he 
would cheerfully pay them. The words "I have divined (Mod. 
Span. Ver. 'I have carefully observed') that Jehovah hath blessed 
me for thy sake," are in Hebrew: "I divined by serpents," etc. 
This is the first time that we meet with divination in the Bible, 



CHAPTER 30: 37— 43 367 

and it manifests from what remote ages the arts of divination 
have been practiced, when the word itself had become a synonym 
for patient and profound investigation, as in this place: it 
teaches us also how divination goes hand in hand with idolatry. 

When, therefore, Laban asked the second time, under what 
conditions Jacob would continue in his service, and how much 
he should pay him, Jacob replied that he should not pay him 
anything; but that he would be satisfied to take as his hire a 
certain class of the cattle, to wit, the black among the sheep 
and the spotted and speckled among the goats, after having 
separated all such from among the cattle of Laban; saying that 
these alone should thenceforward constitute his pay, and that 
any others found among the cattle which he claimed as his should 
be accounted as stolen. Doubtless Jacob had already carefully 
studied out his plan, which seemed to make it certain that all the 
increase of the cattle would be for Laban. The astute and 
selfish father-in-law accepted the proposal with rejoicing, and 
on that same day he set apart all the speckled and spotted and 
striped, and, in a word, all that had any white in them, among 
the goats, and all that was black among the sheep, and committed 
them to the charge of his own sons, separating these from 
Jacob by a three days' journey; so then only a gift of God 
could place cattle of such marks among those which remained 
in the keeping of Jacob. 

[It is not quite certain just what were the "black" sheep that 
were to fall to Jacob's lot, according to the Revised Version. 
The A. V. translates the word "brown;" and as the Hebrew 
Hum, or chum, so rendered, occurs nowhere else in the Hebrew 
Bible, it can only be inferred from its derivation from an obso- 
lete root meaning to be burned or scorched, that any swarthy, 
or blackish brown, color will do as well. Probably no sheep are 
ever really black. The Reina-Valera Version translates it "of a 
dark color."— Tr.] 

30: 37 — 43. the invention of jacob to change the color of the 
young that should be born. (From 1745 to 1739 b. c.) 

37 And Jacob took him rods of fresh poplar, and of the almond 
and of the plane-tree ; and peeled white streaks in them, and made the 
white appear which was in the rods. 

38 And he set the rods which he had peeled over against the flocks 
in the gutters in the watering-troughs where the flocks came to 
drink ; and they conceived when they came to drink. 

39 And the flocks conceived before the rods, and the flocks brought 
forth ringstreaked, speckled, and spotted. 

40 And Jacob separated the lambs, and set the faces of the flocks 
toward the ringstreaked and all the black in the flock of Laban : and 
he put his own droves apart, and put them not unto Laban's flock, 



368 GENESIS 

41 And it came to pass, whensoever the stronger of the flock did 
conceive, that Jacob laid the rods before the eyes of the flock in the 
gutters, that they might conceive among the rods ; 

42 but when the flock were feeble, he put them not in: so the 
feebler were Laban's, and the stronger Jacob's. 

43 And the man increased exceedingly, and had large flocks, and 
maid-servants and men-servants, and camels and asses. 

With regard to the expedient which Jacob adopted in order to 
change the colors of the young of the cattle which remained ex- 
clusively in his care, I do not regard myself as competent to 
express an opinion. It is well known that in certain conditions 
of pregnant females, both of animals and of the human family, 
any vivid impression which is made upon the senses, is capable 
of being impressed on the young with indelible characters; and 
it was of this fact that Jacob availed himself to produce such 
impressions at the time of conception. Whatever may have been 
the natural effect of his expedient, Jacob always attributed the 
result to the particular providence of God; so he desired that it 
should appear, and so it doubtless was, whether by the means 
which Jacob adopted, or without them. See ch. 31: 8 — 16. The 
sense of vr. 33 of the preceding section is clear, but the proper 
translation is difficult. It means to say that when Laban came 
to examine the flocks of his son-in-law, the very color of the 
cattle would bear testimony to Jacob's unquestionable honesty; 
and so it happened, in fact, that when Laban and his sons became 
more and more irritated against Jacob, because of his sudden 
and extraordinary prosperity, they could not find among the 
cattle of Jacob any that was not his, according to the terms of the 
contract made with Laban. With regard to the honorableness 
of his expedient, I have less difficulty. Dealing with a heartless 
extortioner like Laban, "whose tender mercies were cruel" 
(Prov. 12: 10), any means, short of robbery or cheating, would 
be honorable, in order to gain a just part of the fruit of his 
twenty years of arduous toil; especially when it was God who 
protected and favored him therein. See ch. 31: 12, 13. It seems 
that Jacob himself had no great confidence in his invention, but 
that he and his wives attributed the astonishing increase of his 
riches to the direct providence of God. 

The distinction which vrs. 41 and 42 make between the 
stronger and the weaker cattle, demands an explanation. The 
cattle born in the early spring-time are the stronger; those that 
come later are the weaker. The meaning of the passage is that 
in the spring season, when the stronger cattle was in breeding, 
Jacob made use of his invention; but when the time of the less 
vigorous came, he did not use it; gaining thus not only in the 



CHAPTER 31: 1—3 269 

quantity but in the quality of his cattle. And God condescended 
to make use of this natural means, to defend his servant Jacob 
against the rapacity of Laban, and make amends to him for the 
years lost in the service of a cruel master. "So the man in- 
creased exceedingly, and had large flocks, and maidservants, and 
menservants, and camels, and asses." Thus Jehovah showed 
that he had not forgotten the promise he made in Bethel to the 
fugitive Jacob, but that even in the years when his work seemed 
to inure only to the profit of Laban, he was laying solid founda- 
tions for the future prosperity and greatness of Jacob. 

"Trust in him at all times, ye people! 

pour out your heart before him: 

God is a refuge for us!" Ps. 62: 8. 

CHAPTER XXXI. 

'VBS. 1 3. THE SUDDEN PROSPERITY OF JACOB COMPLETELY RUPTURES 

HIS GOOD RELATIONS WITH LABAN AND HIS SONS. GOD COMMANDS 
HIM TO RETURN TO HIS OWN LAND. (1739 B. C.) 

1 And he heard the words of Laban's sons, saying, Jacob hath 
taken away all that was our father's ; and of that which was our 
father's hath he gotten all this glory. 

2 And Jacob beheld the countenance of Laban, and, behold, it was 
not toward him as beforetime. 

3 And Jehovah said unto Jacob, Return unto the land of thy 
fathers, and to thy kindred; and I will be with thee. 

Laban and his sons were thoroughly satisfied during the four- 
teen years that God blessed the estate of Laban for the sake of 
Jacob; but when the latter had now an interest of his own, and 
God was blessing him surprisingly, the sons of Laban accused 
him of robbing their father to enrich himself. Jacob had 
foreseen this case, and as he had none among his cattle of the 
colors that belonged to Laban they had no real basis of complaint; 
especially as their father had gladly accepted the agreement. 
Ch. 30: 33, 34. Apparently Laban said nothing; but his sons 
talked, and talked with the intention of being heard. As they 
had taken away from Jacob all human possibility of having 
even one animal of these particular colors, and according to the 
allegation of Jacob in vrs. 7 and 8, Laban, to suit himself, had 
changed the conditions of the contract "ten times," that is to 
say, a great many times, but still the young of the flocks were 
born more numerous and better for Jacob than for Laban, it is 
plain that it was God who did it; and as Jacob was not capable 
of giving new and different skins to the cattle which, as they 



370 GENESIS 

said, he had stolen from their father, it is probable that they 
accused him of using magic or witchcraft to gain his purpose; 
an accusation to which the peeled rods of Jacob would lend the 
appearance of truth, if they had notice of them. But besides the 
loquacious upbraidings of the sons, Jacob noticed that, although 
Laban himself said little or nothing, his countenance had com- 
pletely changed toward him; which gave him concern, knowing 
perfectly as he did what Laban was capable of doing. But God 
came to resolve his doubts with a positive command that he 
should return to his kindred and to the land of his fathers; 
giving him besides the express promise that he would be with 
him. In giving him this command, he made use of a favorable 
juncture, when Laban was absent from home, having gone a 
three days' journey to attend the shearing of his sheep (vr. 19) ; 
which was always a time of feasting and of general rejoicing. 
Ch. 38: 14; 1 Sam. 25: 2—7; 2 Sam. 13: 23, 24. 

31: 4 — 16. JACOB CALLS HIS WIVES, HE EXPLAINS TO THEM THE 
CASE, AND TELLS THEM OF THE OEDEE WHICH GOD HAD GIVEN HIM 
TO RETURN TO HIS OWN COUNTRY; ALL OF WHICH THEY AT ONCE 
AGREE TO. (1739 B. C.) 

4 And Jacob sent and called Rachel and Leah to the field unto his 
flock, 

5 And said unto them, I see your father's countenance, that it is 
not toward me as beforetime ; but the God of my father hath been 
with me. 

6 And ye know that with all my power I have served your father. 

7 And your father hath deceived me, and changed my wages ten 
times ; but God suffered him not to hurt me. 

8 If he said thus, The speckled shall be thy wages: then all the 
flock bare speckled : and if he said thus, The ringstreaked shall be 
thy wages : then bare all the flock ringstreaked. 

9 Thus God hath taken away the cattle of your father, and given 
them to me. 

10 And it came to pass at the time that the flock conceive, that 
I lifted up mine eyes, and saw in a dream, and, behold, the he-goats 
which leaped upon the flock were ringstreaked, speckled, and grizzled. 

11 And the angel of God said unto me in the dream, Jacob: and 
I said, Here am I. 

12 And he said, Lift up now thine eyes, and see : all the he-goats 
which leap upon the flock are ringstreaked, speckled, and grizzled : 
for I have seen all that Laban doeth unto thee. 

13 I am the God of Beth-el, where thou anointedst a pillar, where 
thou vowedst a vow unto me ; now arise, get thee out from this land, 
and return unto the land of thy nativity. 

14 And Rachel and Leah answered and said unto him, Is there yet 
any portion or inheritance for us in our father's house? 

15 Are we not accounted by him as foreigners*? for he hath sold 
us, and hath also quite devoured our money. 

16 For all the riches which God hath taken away from our father, 
that is ours and our children's: now then, whatsoever God hath said 
unto thee, do. 

\_*A V., M. 8. V., strangers.] 



CHAPTER 31: 17—21 371 

The paragraph is very clear and requires no explanations; hut 
there are three things which especially call our attention: 

1st. That the "Angel of God" hy whose particular providence 
the wealth of Jacob had increased so astonishingly, tells him 
expressly: "I am the God of Bethel, where thou anointedst a 
pillar and where thou vowedst a vow unto me" (vr. 13) ; the 
which "Angel" and the which "God of Bethel" were indisputably 
the same "Jehovah" whom he had seen in vision at the top of the 
stairway (not the "ladder," as it is commonly called), and who 
there said to him: "I am Jehovah, the God of Abraham thy 
father, and the God of Isaac." Ch. 28: 13. "Angel" means a 
"messenger" or "one sent." If therefore this Angel was sent, 
who was it that sent him? More than sixty times in the New 
Testament Jesus calls himself, or is called, in one or another 
form, "the sent One." See John 7: 16; 12: 49; 1 John 4: 14. 
How faithful is our God in fulfilling his promises! and of how 
much needed good and restfulness of spirit we deprive our- 
selves by not trusting in him with illimitable confidence! For 
more than fourteen years it seemed that "the God of Bethel" 
had completely forgotten his promise, while he was only wait- 
ing the most favorable juncture to work. 

2nd. These Oriental women, while submitting to the com- 
mand and disposal of their father, did not on that account fail 
to see the injustice of his procedure, and the dishonor with which 
he was treating them: "Is there yet any portion or inheritance 
for us in our father's house? Are we not accounted of him 
strangers? For he hath sold us, and he hath also quite devoured 
our money." They were therefore ready to accompany Jacob at 
once, in obedience to all that God had commanded. 

3rd. In vrs. 4 and 14 the name of Rachel takes precedence of 
Leah's; a distinction which Jacob never failed to make, in 
recognition of the fact that she only was his proper wife. Comp. 
Ruth 4: 11, and see the comments on chs. 33: 2; 44: 27. 

31: 17 — 21. JACOB ARRANGES HIS ESTATE, AND SETS OUT Upon HIS 
JOURNEY, FLEEING WITH SECRECY. (1739 B. C.) 

17 Then Jacob rose up, and set his sons and his wives upon the 
camels ; 

18 and he carried away all his cattle, and all his substance which 
he had gathered, the cattle of his getting, which he had gathered in 
Paddan-aram, to go to Isaac his father unto the land of Canaan. 

19 Now Laban was gone to shear his sheep ; and Rachel stole the 
teraphim* that were her father's. 

20 And Jacob stole away unawares to Labant the Syrian, in that 
he told him not that he fled. 

[*z=honsetiold gods.] ^Heb. stole the heart of Laban. 



372 GENESIS 

21 And he fled with all that he had ; and he rose up, and passed 
over the River, and set his face toward the mountain of Gilead. 

When Laban divided his cattle into two parts, and placed in 
the hands of his sons all those whose produce would be to the 
profit of Jacob, he placed a three days' journey between the two, 
leaving in Jacob's hands only the cattle whose young would 
naturally fall to Laban. Ch. 30: 35, 36. Laban's home was no 
doubt in Haran as before, and it is probable that the family of 
Jacob was there also, he having his cattle in the fields or country 
near by. Laban had gone at that time to the shearing of his 
sheep, which were a three days' journey from home; so that 
Jacob without difficulty or embarrassment arranged his affairs, 
gathered his family, his cattle, and all his property — all that 
was properly and indisputably his own (vrs. 21, 36 — 38), and 
straightway took his journey. Doubtless he had for days past 
been making the necessary arrangements; so that without diffi- 
culty or loss of time he set forth, and forded the river Euphrates 
(called constantly "the River," in the Old Testament), which 
was a comparatively short distance away; and turning short to 
the left, he took a S. W. course, directing his steps toward the 
mountain region of Gilead, to the east of the Jordan. Jacob had 
stolen away, and took all possible care to get as far ahead as he 
could, before Laban had word of his departure. That is a singular 
Hebrew phrase which expresses the idea of this secret flight. Vr. 
20 says literally: "And Jacob stole the heart of Laban the 
Syrian, in that he did not tell him that he fled." 

For the first time we have here a reference to "household gods" 
(or "domestic idols," He~b. teraphim), so well known among the 
ancient Romans under the name of "lares" or of "penates," and 
no less well known among modern Roman Catholics under the 
name of "tutelar saints" or "patrons"; before whose images or 
pictures, carefully guarded in the house, they burn lamps or 
candles, night and day. All this is one and the same thing, 
with a change of names. The teraphim — the family gods, or do- 
mestic idols, so often mentioned in the Bible, were of different 
kinds and sizes. Michal, the daughter of Saul and wife of 
David, had one of them in her house, of the size of a man, 
or which might well represent a man, covered with the bed 
clothes, and with his head lying on a pillow of goat's hair. 
1 Sam. 19: 13. But here they were so small that Rachel 
could without difficulty place two or more of them under- 
neath her, among the baggage of her camel, on which she took 
her seat. It is probable that Laban called these (as read in the 
Modern Spanish Version) "the gods of Abraham and the gods 



CHAPTER 31: 22—30 373 

of Nahor, the gods which were of their father," Terah. Vr. 53. 
We know from ch. 35: 2, that the people and immediate family 
of Jacob brought with them from Haran, and retained still in 
their possession, their strange gods (which, if teraphim, or 
household gods, would be of the same class), until Jacob de- 
manded them, and buried them beneath an oak or terebinth, in 
Shechem; and it costs us no difficulty to believe that Rachel stole 
those of her father for her own use, or, in any case, by way of 
precaution, to deprive him of the help she supposed they might 
give him at a time so critical as that of the flight of Jacob. 
The daughters of Laban naturally participated in the idolatries of 
their father and his family, and only little by little were they 
thoroughly cleansed of it. See ch. 35: 2. It is important to 
know Jacob and his family just as the Bible represents them, and 
not as we would wish they had been; as is the use of many per- 
sons, and even of some commentators. 

31: 22 — 30. laban follows after jacob, and overtakes him in 
the mountain country of gilead. (1739 b. c.) 

22 And it was told Laban on the third day that Jacob was fled. 

23 And he took his brethren with him, and pursued after him 
seven days' journey ; and he overtook him in the mountain of Gilead. 

24 And God came to Laban the Syrian in a dream of the night, 
and said unto him, Take heed to thyself that thou speak not to Jacob 
either good or bad. 

25 And Laban came up with Jacob. Now Jacob had pitched his 
tent in the mountain : and Laban with his brethren encamped in the 
mountain of Gilead. 

26 And Laban said to Jacob, What hast thou done, that thou hast 
stolen away unawares to me, and carried away my daughters as cap- 
tives of the sword? 

27 Wherefore didst thou flee secretly, and steal away from me, 
and didst not tell me, that I might have sent thee away with mirth 
and with songs, with tabret and with harp ; 

28 and didst not suffer me to kiss my sons and my daughters? now 
hast thou done foolishly. 

29 It is in the power of my hand to do you hurt ; but the God of 
your father spake unto me yesternight, saying, Take heed to thyself 
that thou speak not to Jacob either good or bad. 

30 And now, though thou wouldest needs be gone, because thou 
sore longedst after thy father's house, yet wherefore hast thou stolen 
my gods? 

On the third day after Jacob had fled, Laban had word of it; 
and "taking with him his brethren," he started with all speed in 
pursuit of Jacob. In order to do this, he would need, first, to 
return home (ordinarily a three days' journey), and then gather 
his people and friends, a numerous company (Esau went on the 
same errand with 400 men, ch. 32: 6), all which would require 
some time. The words "his brethren" (comp. ch. 29: 4; 31: 37) 
is used with much latitude in the Bible, and does not confine us 



374 GENESIS 

by any means to his own immediate family, though the con- 
nection was large (ch. 22: 20 — 24), but embraced his and their 
partizans and friends and neighbors, dependents and servants, 
who all readily enlisted; for poor Jacob had evidently few 
friends in Haran, after twenty years of residence there; he was 
not the man to make friends readily. With these he pursued 
after Jacob a seven days' journey, and overtook him in the 
mountain country of Gilead; "Mount Gilead," say Valera and the 
English Version; "in the mountain of Gilead," says the R. V. 
These were naturally forced marches, and give us no idea of the 
distance he traveled. Nor do we know how much time he would 
lose in returning to Haran, and gathering his people, before he 
set out on this seven days' journey. The distance for Jacob would 
not be less than 350 miles, under the most favorable circum- 
stances and by the shortest route; and with a large encampment 
and several thousand head of cattle of all kinds (see the com- 
ment on ch. 32: 14, 15), however much he might hurry his 
march, he would need fifteen or twenty days to cover the 
distance between Haran and the mountains of Gilead where they 
met. Laban came prepared to recover everything, and with the 
probable intention of killing Jacob, or reducing him to his former 
servitude. But God came to him in dreams of the night, and com- 
manded him: "See that thou speak not to Jacob either good or 
evil;" words which of course are not to be understood as they 
read; but they gave him to understand that he should take good 
care what he said or did to Jacob; for He was his protector, 
and would see to his defence. In days like these, in which 
unbelievers abound, who deny the possibility of a divine revela- 
tion, it is important to fix attention on the fact that God had no 
more difficulty in communicating with bad men than with good; 
and that Laban had no more doubt of what God said to him than 
of what Jacob said to him. 

In Hebrew, "mount," "mountain," "mountain country" and 
"cordillera" or "mountain range" are all one; so that it comes to 
be impossible to distinguish between the "mountain country of 
Gilead" and "Mount Gilead;" the former being the name of an 
elevated region to the east of Jordan, some 60 miles long by 
20 wide, of 2,000 or 3,000 feet elevation above the ocean, or 
4,000 feet above the river Jordan and the waters of the Dead 
Sea; while "Mount Gilead" is the most elevated point of this 
mountain range, situated some miles south of the river Jabbok, 
and which bears till today the same name in Arabic form. From 
this there results a complete entanglement in our endeavors to 
clear up the movements of Jacob in these chapters; and no 






CHAPTER 31: 22—30 375 

commentary that I have seen even attempts to make them plain. 
Let the reader bear in mind that the geography of this region to 
the east of the Jordan is still but little known, and that the 
Biblical maps are in disagreement with regard to many of the 
principal points mentioned; so that it is not possible to trace 
this journey of Jacob in accordance with any one of them. 
After many weeks of hard study of these chapters (31, 32, and 
33), I have become convinced that the "Mount Gilead" of Valera 
and the A. V. should be the "mountain country of Gilead," already 
mentioned, toward which Jacob naturally and necessarily directed 
his steps in going from Haran to Beersheba, in a S. W. direction. 
Laban overtook him encamped on one of the eminences of this 
mountain range, called in vr. 25 "the mount," and Laban himself 
encamped "in the mountain range of Gilead," near to him. The 
particular mountain where Jacob encamped and where he and 
Laban made their compact of peace, was named by them 
"Galeed" and "Mizpah" (vr. 47, 48), the which Mizpah (or 
Mizpeh) of Gilead was famous in the history of Jephthah, Judg. 
11: 29. To suppose that "the mountain" was "Mount Gilead," to 
the south of the Jabbok, would not only be to confound places 
distant from each other, but would place Jacob under the necessity 
of crossing the river Jabbok four times: (1) when pursued by 
Laban; (2) recrossing it again, so as to be found on the north 
of the Jabbok when Esau came against him with 400 men; 

(3) crossing it again to the south of the river, in order to meet 
Esau who came from the south, from the country of Seir; and 

(4) passing over to Succoth, which was to the north of the 
Jabbok, after the reconciliation between Esau and himself; while 
on the contrary, the Bible text seems to give us to understand 
that Jacob kept constantly on his way to the S. W., in the direc- 
tion of Beersheba or Hebron; until after his meeting with Esau 
(who proposed to accompany him in his journey, ch. 33:12); 
when for some unknown reason Jacob turned short about, and 
instead of going on towards Beersheba, went to the north, or 
N. W., to Succoth, and from thence he passed to Shechem, on the 
western side of the Jordan. 

I shall not perplex the reader with the details of the case; it 
will be sufficient to say that after long study of the point I am 
satisfied that the place of the meeting of Jacob and Laban was 
the unknown location of "Mizpah of Gilead," or "Ramoth Mizpah," 
some distance to the north of the river Jabbok, — Mahanaim would 
lie S. W. of this, and probably not far from the Jordan (2 Sam. 
17: 16, 27); that Peniel or Penuel was on the river Jabbok, at 
the point where Jacob had his contest with the angel, north of the 



376 GENESIS 

river; that the reconciliation between Jacob and Esau took place 
to the south of this river; and from thence Esau returned towards 
the south, to Seir, while Jacob turned suddenly to the north, 
and recrossing the river, passed on to the city of Succoth, where 
he built for himself, a house and remained several years. I be- 
lieve that Laban did not cross the Jabbok, so as to arrive at 
Valera's supposed "Mount Gilead," at all, and that Jacob only 
crossed it twice. After this long digression we will resume the 
thread of the story. 

In spite of the divine admonition, Laban, as soon as he saw 
Jacob, began with bitter reproaches, to the effect that he must 
have committed some great wickedness, and for that cause had 
fled away secretly, carrying away his daughters, as if captured 
by the sword. What more could he say (as God had tied his 
tongue and his sword), except to accuse Jacob of cowardice, in 
depriving the magnanimous Laban of the privilege of sending 
him away with festivity and song; and did not even allow him 
the opportunity of giving to his sons and daughters the farewell 
kiss! A foolish procedure, he said, was this on the part of 
Jacob; knowing as well as Jacob himself did, that only thus was 
it possible for him to escape at all from the pitiless hands of 
his father-in-law; and confessing at the same time that he 
came with the power and will to do him harm, had it not been 
that the God of Isaac ("the God of your father") had put into 
his mouth a powerful and effective bridle. But, allowing that he 
could not longer resist the desire to return to his father and to 
his country, he asks him: "Why hast thou stolen my gods?" 
The ignominy of idols, impotent to defend even themselves 
against robbery and ill usage, is what Laban and other idolaters 
never see; and even in Christian countries, Romanists go on fol- 
lowing in their footsteps, with idols and images, as helpless as 
the other, and with "consecrated hosts," or wafers (impiously 
called "His Divine Majesty"), which even a mouse is able to 
"steal," and carry away to his hole! 

It is also interesting to notice how, with the repeated mention 
of "the God of your father," Laban is giving emphasis to the 
fact that the actual God of Abraham and his children was not 
his god, nor the ancestral god of the family, — gods which Abra- 
ham had abandoned. *See comment on vr. 53. 



CHAPTER 31: 31—35 377 

31: 31 — 35. jacob gives an account of himself and of his 
conduct. laban sets about to ovekhaul the effects of 
jacob, seeking his lost gods. (1739 b. c.) 

31 And Jacob answered and said to Laban, Because I was afraid : 
for I said, Lest thou shouldest take thy daughters from me by force. 

32 With whomsoever thou findest thy gods, he shall not live : be- 
fore our brethren discern thou what is thine with me, and take it to 
thee. For Jacob knew not that Rachel had stolen them. 

33 And Laban went into Jacob's tent, and into Leah's tent, and 
into the tent of the two maid-servants ; but he found them not. And 
he went out of Leah's tent, and entered into Rachel's tent. 

3-1 Now Rachel had taken the teraphim, and put them in the 
camel's saddle, and sat upon them. And Laban felt about all the 
tent, but found them not. 

35 And she said to her father, Let not my lord be angry that I 
cannot rise up before thee ; for the manner of women is upon me. 
And he searched, but found not the teraphim. 

Jacob justified his secret flight with the frank declaration, of 
what was probably the truth, that if he had not got away in 
such a manner, Laban would have taken from him his daughters 
by force; to which he later adds, that he would have taken 
away everything else that he had gained in his twenty years 
of arduous toil. Vr. 42. In regard to his gods (without even 
suspecting that his beloved Rachel had them hidden underneath 
her), Jacob said that with whomsoever Laban might find them, 
he should die. It does not appear that this was in those days the 
penalty for stealing gods, or whether Jacob, indignant at such 
baseness and superstition, vented his wrath in strong words. 
Jacob told him to search all his effects and take all that he 
found of his own. Vr. 37. Laban began the search, examining 
and feeling (vr. 34) everything. Rachel could hardly have 
escaped in such a rigorous scrutiny as that which Laban was 
making, beginning with the tent of Jacob, and passing thence 
to those of Leah and the two maid-servants, and coming at last 
to her own. But she was quick-witted, and in a moment she 
placed the idols under the furniture of her camel, and seated 
herself upon it, pretending to be with her periodical sickness 
(which by euphemism is called in the Bible "the manner of 
women") and unable to rise; with which falsehood she excused 
herself from rising up in the presence of her "lord," as she 
called him, when he entered. We see here in embryo that pro- 
vision of the Mosaic law, that in such a condition a woman 
was unclean, and ought to touch nobody, and nobody to touch 
her, nor anything she was seated upon, nor the things that she 
had touched. Lev. 15: 19 — 23. In this way Rachel gained her 
point, and her father at once withdrew, without examining, 
or feeling, the pile of things on which she was seated, where 
she had hidden his family gods. 



378 GENESIS 

31: 36 — 42. the energetic protest which jacob makes of his 
honorable deportment, and against the ill treatment he had 
received always from laban. (1739 b. c.) 

36 And Jacob was wroth, and chode with Laban: and Jacob 

answered and said to Laban, What is my trespass? what is my sin, 
that thou hast hotly pursued after me? 

37 Whereas thou hast felt about all my stuff, what hast thou 
found of all thy household stuff? Set it here before my brethren and 
thy brethren, that they may judge betwixt us two. 

38 These twenty years have I been with thee; thy ewes and thy 
she-goats have not cast their young, and the rams of thy flocks have I 
not eaten. 

39 That which was torn of beasts I brought not unto thee ; I bare 
the loss of it ; of my hand didst thou require it, whether stolen by 
day or stolen by night. 

40 Thus I was ; in the day the drought consumed me, and the frost 
by night ; and my sleep fled from mine eyes. 

41 These twenty years have I been in thy house ; I served thee 
fourteen years for thy two daughters, and six years for thy flock* : 
and thou hast changed my wages ten times. 

42 Except the God of my father, the God of Abraham, and the 
Fear of Isaac, had been with me, surely now hadst thou sent me 
away empty. God hath seen mine affliction and the labor of my hands, 
and rebuked thee yesternight. 

[•A. V., M. 8. V., cattle.] 

When Laban withdrew mortified and empty-handed from 
Rachel's tent, after he had searched in vain for his gods, or any- 
thing else of his that was among Jacob's effects, the latter, moved 
with vehement indignation, loosed his tongue to berate him for 
the manner in which he had always treated him. Laban had 
insinuated that he fled away secretly, after the manner of some 
fugitive evil-doer; and Jacob, in his turn, asks him why he had 
so hotly pursued him, as if he was a thief, since he was unable 
to find among his effects anything that was his. After setting 
forth his untiring zeal in the service of Laban, his perfect in- 
tegrity, and the rigor with which Laban had ruled him, as a piti- 
less master, he tells him that in the twenty years he had served 
him, his sheep and his goats had not lost their young, and 
that he had never eaten the rams of his flocks— it being the 
usage of herdsmen to eat the males and not the females. Thus 
with ceaseless toil he had served him day and night, bearing 
himself (by the requirement of Laban) the loss of what was 
carried away by wild beasts; and withal, if it had not been, he 
said, for "the God of my father, the God of Abraham and the 
Fear of Isaac, who reproved thee last night," Laban would have 
dispatched him after twenty years of such service, as poor as he 
came. Jacob resents, in vr. 29, the imputation which Laban had 
insinuated with regard to the God of his father, laying emphasis 
on the fact that "the God of his father" was no other than "the 



CHAPTER 31: 43—55 379 

God of Abraham and the Fear of Isaac;" without entering on the 
question of the abandonment of the ancestral gods of Terah, and 
Nahor, and Bethuel, and Laban. See comments on vr. 53. 

31: 43 — 55. laban and jacob enteb into a covenant of peace. 
(1739 b. c.) 

43 And Laban answered and said unto Jacob, The daughters are 
my daughters, and the children are my children, and the flocks are 
my flocks, and all that thou seest is mine : and what can I do this 
day unto these my daughters, or unto their children whom they have 
borne ? 

44 And now come, let us make a covenant, I and thou ; and let it 
be for a witness between me and thee. 

45 And Jacob took a stone, and set it up for a pillar. 

46 And Jacob said unto his brethren, Gather stones ; and they took 
stones, and made a heap : and they did eat there by the heap. . 

47 And Laban called it Jegar-saha-dutha :* but Jacob called it 
Galeed.f 

48 And Laban said, This heap is witness between me and thee 
this day. Therefore was the name of it called Galeed : 

49 and Mizpah,$ for he said, Jehovah watch between me and thee, 
when we are absent one from another. 

50 If thou shalt afflict my daughters, and if thou shalt take wives 
besides my daughters, no man is with us ; see, God is witness betwixt 
me and thee. 

51 And Laban said to Jacob, Behold this heap, and behold the pil- 
lar, which I have set betwixt me and thee. 

52 This heap be witness, and the pillar be witness, that I will 
not pass over this heap to thee, and that thou shalt not pass over 
this heap and this pillar unto me, for harm. 

. 53 The God of Abraham, and the God of Nahor, the God§ of their 
father, judge betwixt us. And Jacob sware by the Fear of his father 
Isaac. 

54 And Jacob offered a sacrifice in the mountain, and called his 
brethren to eat bread : and they did eat bread : and tarried all night 
in the mountain. 

55 And early in the morning Laban rose up, and kissed his sons 
and his daughters, and blessed them : and Laban departed, and re- 
turned unto his place. 

*That is, The heap of witness, in Aramaic. 
■\That is, The heap of witness, in Hebrew. 
XThat is, The watch-tower. §Or, gods. 

To these protests, as deeply felt as they were well founded, 
Laban only replied with bravado and idle boasting; and then 
proposed that the two should make a covenant of peace, and 
mutually swear that neither of them would pass beyond that 
point with hostile intent. In fact they made there a covenant 
which was to serve as a testimony between the two. Jacob again 
set up a stone for a pillar (see ch. 28: 18), and then, gathering 
stones, all of them, they made a heap or mound of stones, and 
ate on that mound; which rite of eating together, served as 
security for peace and harmony, according to the usage still pre- 
vailing among the Orientals. The marked difference between 
the names which Jacob and Laban gave to that heap of stones, 



380 GENESIS 

is evidence of the difference there was between the language of 
Haran, which was Aramaic or Syrian, and that of Canaan, which 
Jacob and his descendants spoke, and is one of the incidental 
proofs alleged to prove that Hebrew was the language of Canaan, 
which Abraham adopted when he emigrated from his own native 
country to the land of promise. See Comments on ch. 11: 1. 

The beautiful Mizpah benediction of the Society of Christian 
Endeavor, which is for its members the expression and pledge 
of mutual fidelity, had originally in the mouth of Laban a 
significance and purpose which was precisely the opposite, as the 
language of jealous suspicion and distrust. Two things Laban 
demanded, careless as he had till then been of the welfare of his 
daughters: (1) That Jacob should not oppress them, when far 
from the house of their father; and it may be that the past 
differences and dissensions between the two sisters gave occasion 
for this demand. See ch. 30: 1, 15; and (2) that he should not 
take any more wives in addition to those he already had. 
Laban counted his two daughters as the wives of Jacob (and so 
does Moses, ch. 32: 22), and the two servants as his concubines. 
Jacob was inclined to count Rachel as his only legitimate wife. 
Ch. 44: 27- To bind Jacob to the performance of these stipula- 
tions, Laban set Jehovah as a sentinel in a watch-tower (:=> 
Mizpah) to watch over their fulfilment. And in testimony that 
neither of the two would pass that pile of stones with hostile in- 
tent, he put for witness the pile and the pillar which they had 
reared in that place. They pledged their solemn oath to this 
effect. Laban makes his appeal to the ancient gods of the 
family, "the gods of Abraham and the gods of Nahor, gods that 
were of their father" before them. Jacob who knew that Abra- 
ham had been at one time a worshiper of Laban's gods, whom 
he had renounced to love and serve Jehovah alone, did not wish to 
swear by the "God of Abraham," an expression which he and 
Laban used in different senses; and for this reason "he swore by 
the Fear of his father Isaac" — that new God of Abraham whom 
alone Isaac had feared. In vr. 53 the verb and noun (God) are 
both in the plural, manifesting that "the gods of Abraham," etc. 
and not "the God of Abraham," is the correct translation.* See 
also comments on ch. 12: 1; 31: 19, 30 and 42. 

When these ceremonies were finished, or, more probably, as 

•The Revised Version, both English and American, is, I think, partial 
and unfair, — it is positively misleading, in this place, in appending the 
alternative rendering "or, gods/' to "the God of their father" — Terah, 
but not to "the God of Abraham and the God of Nahor." In the Hebrew 
text, the plural verb is attached immediately to "the gods of Abraham and 
the gods of Nahor," rather than to "the gods of their father." — Tr. 



CHAPTER 32: 1, 2 381 

part of them, Jacob offered sacrifices in the mount, and invited 
his brethren or friends (as they all were at that moment), and 
celebrated a great feast; which was always a part of the sacri- 
fices of peace-offerings (Lev. 7: 11 — 18); and they all passed the 
night in the mount; and in the morning Laban, with kisses and 
benedictions set out on his journey and returned to his place. 
Happy end to which God brought the armed expedition of Laban, 
which might well have cost Jacob his life! "When a man's ways 
please the Lord, he maketh even his enemies to be at peace with 
him." Prov. 16: 7. The ways of Jacob had begun to please the 
Lord. 

CHAPTER XXXII. 

VES. 1, 2. JACOB IN MAHANAIM. (1739 B. C.) 

1 And Jacob went on his way, and the angels of God met him. 

2 And Jacob said when he saw them, This is God's host : and he 
called the name of that place Mahanaim. 

There is much uncertainty in our Bible maps with regard to 
the localities mentioned in chapters 31 and 32. The most of 
them put Mount Gilead to the south of the river Jabbok; one that 
I have before me places it to the north. Most of them place 
Mahanaim to the north of the Jabbok, 20 miles or more from the 
Jordan: it is probable that it was near the valley of the Jordan, 
a few miles from the river; for it would seem that David in his 
precipitate flight from Absalom arrived there on the second day 
after leaving Jerusalem; and the reason given why Ahimaaz out- 
ran the Cushite, in carrying to David the news of the battle, 
was that he "ran by the way of the plain (of Jordan)" 2 Sam. 
17: 27—29; 18: 23. "The wood of Ephraim," to the east of the Jor- 
dan, where that battle was fought, took name probably from the 
slaughter which Jephthah there made of 42,000 Ephraimites, at 
the fords of the Jordan, in the days of the Judges. Judg. 12: 5, 
6. Others still locate Mahanaim on the south of the river 
Jabbok, to the north of "Mount Gilead." Some maps locate Ramoth 
Gilead (which is probably the same as the "Mizpah" of ch. 
31: 49, or "Mizpeh of Gilead," famous in the history of Jephthah 
(Judg. 11: 29, 34), to the north of the Jabbok; and others, 
erroneously I think, to the south. Until therefore the geography 
of the region "beyond Jordan" is better understood, it will be 
allowed me to maintain the opinion already expressed, that the 
"Mount Gilead" of the maps was not the place of the meeting of 
Laban and Jacob, and that Jacob did not march to the south, 
then to the north, after that to the south, and at last toward the 



382 GENESIS 

north, fording the dangerous torrent of Jabbok four times with- 
out cause; but that he "went on his way" always toward the 
south, as the text states, until he changed his route, after his 
meeting with Esau, and, abandoning the road to Beersheba, 
turned to the north and went to Succoth. 

After the departure of Laban, Jacob continued his journey, 
going south. In Mahanaim the angels of God came out to meet 
him; as if to congratulate him, and bid him welcome, after the 
spiritual victory he had gained over Laban. This company of 
angels would naturally remind him of "the stairway," in his 
vision at Bethel, by which companies of angels ascended and 
descended. Ch. 28: 12. We would desire to know more about 
this visit of angels, which has for its only parallel in the Bible 
that of the multitude of the heavenly host who announced "glory 
to God in the highest and on earth peace," on the night of the 
Holy Birth (Luke 2: 13, 14) ; but all details are lacking. Whether 
it was by day or by night, Jacob received much consolation and 
cheer from this visit; and well did he need it for the trial, more 
terrible still, that awaited him. The company must have been 
numerous, judging by the name Jacob gave to the place 
"Mahanaim" (=two encampments, or armies); so called, either 
on account of two companies that the angels formed, or because 
there were two armies or encampments, of which one was that 
of Jacob. 

32: 3 — 8. jacob had sent messengers to his brother esatj, and 
they return in haste with tidings that esau was coming 
against him with four hundred men. (1739 b. c.) 

3 And Jacob sent messengers before him to Esau his brother unto 
the land of Seir, the field of Edom. 

4 And he commanded them, saying, Thus shall ye say unto my 
lord Esau : Thus saith thy servant Jacob, I have sojourned with Laban, 
and stayed until now : 

5 and I have oxen, and asses, and flocks, and men-servants, and 
maid-servants : and I have sent to tell my lord, that I may find favor 
in. thy sight. 

6 And the messengers returned to Jacob, saying, We came to thy 
brother Esau, and moreover he cometh to meet thee, and four hun- 
dred men with him. 

7 Then Jacob was greatly afraid and was distressed: and he 
divided the people that were with him, and the flocks, and the herds, 
and the camels, into two companies : 

8 and he said, If Esau come to the one company, and smite it, 
then the company which is left shall escape. 

As the journey from Mahanaim to the country of Seir was a 
journey of several days duration, Jacob would wait some time 
there for the return of his messengers, in order to have certain 
intelligence about his brother, and know his feelings toward him; 



CHAPTER 32: 9—12 383 

and yet as Esau met him near Penuel, or Peniel, after he forded 
the river Jabbok, going south, it is clear that Jacob had removed 
from Mahanaim to the vicinity of the river Jabbok, which there 
crosses the high table-land of Gilead through a canyon, from 1500 
to 2000 feet deep, between precipitous banks, or mountain slopes, of 
that elevation ; and it is probable that there, near to the Jabbok, he 
waited the outcome of the event. Penuel, it seems, was to the 
north of the river Jabbok, and the place of his meeting with 
Esau to the south. It is evident also that Jacob must have 
made a considerable delay in those parts, in order that notice of 
his unexpected and precipitous flight from Padan-aram should 
come to the ears of Esau (to the south of the Dead Sea) so op- 
portunely that he had time to arm 400 men, and meet with 
the messengers of Jacob on their journey south. 

Jacob then had sent to inform Esau of his coming, to give an 
account of himself, and to offer his humble submission, as his 
servant. Ch. 32: 4, 18, 20; 33: 5, 8. With good reason he feared 
the vengeance of the brother whom he had wronged so cruelly; 
notwithstanding which, we do not know how to excuse the abject 
and servile spirit which he manifested, after the great promises 
and signal mercies which God had granted him. But this was 
Jacob, naturally timid and "of a fearful heart," who was by 
nature astute, cunning and crafty, rather than valiant. The 
mention he makes of his riches and of his numerous possessions, 
was not done in the spirit of boasting, but in order to evoke the 
consideration and respect of Esau, who naturally held him in 
contempt, as well as hatred. But he obtained nothing; perhaps 
his messengers did not even have time to perform their mission; 
because they returned precipitately, reporting that they had come 
upon Esau in the way, and that he was coming against him with 
400 men. 

This report filled Jacob with consternation. He had evidently 
hoped that after his twenty years of absence, Esau would have 
forgotten, or pardoned, the double injury he had done him; but 
he now saw his mistake. He therefore, as his first act, in great 
anguish of spirit, divided the people and property which he had 
brought, into two parts, so that if Esau should come and smite 
the one, the other would have opportunity to escape. 

32: 9 — 12. his principal recourse, prayer. (1739 b. c.) 

9 And Jacob said, O God of my father Abraham, and God of my 
father Isaac, O Jehovah, who saidst unto me, Return unto thy coun- 
try, and to thy kindred, and I will do thee good : 

10 I am not worthy of the least of all the loving kindnesses, and of 
all the truth, which thou hast showed unto thy servant; for with my 



384 GENESIS 

staff I passed over this Jordan ; and now I am become two com- 
panies. 

11 Deliver me, I pray thee, from the hand of my brother, from the 
hand of Esau : for I fear him, lest he come and smite me, the mother 
with the children. 

12 And thou saidst, I will surely do thee good, and make thy seed 
as the sand of the sea, which cannot be numbered for multitude. 

The case demanded haste; he took, therefore, the steps already 
related, and then betook himself to prayer; which has always 
been the principal recourse of the people of God in times of strait 
and great danger; like Job who thus expresses himself: 

"My friends scorn me; 

but mine eye poureth out tears unto God." Job 16: 20. 

and David: 

"For my love they are my adversaries; 
but I give myself unto prayer." Ps. 109: 4. 

And so Jacob, after doing what at the moment prudence coun- 
seled, goes hastily to God, in order to place himself beneath his 
promised protection; and his prayer is extremely beautiful, sim- 
ple and soul moving. It is so clear, that to comment upon it 
would be to detract something from its beauty and force. As this, 
however, is the first prayer that we find related in the Bible 
(for that of Abraham, in ch. 18: 23-33 is rather a conversa- 
tional intercession, than a prayer to the unseen God), it will not 
be amiss to fix attention on its several parts: (1) The invocation, 
addressed to the God of the covenanted promises: "God of my 
father Abraham, and God of my father Isaac"; (2) The same 
who had commanded him to set out on this journey, under his 
safe-conduct and protection; (3) The humble and feeling con- 
fession of his unworthiness, and of the fidelity of God toward 
him, in changing the solitary fugitive into a rich chieftain, at 
the head of two encampments, as is said in vrs. 7 and 8; which 
no doubt presented an imposing aspect, with its tents and many 
thousands of cattle; (4) The petition that he would deliver him 
from the danger which was right upon him; (5) He shelters 
himself yet again under the sure promises of God: "Thou, thy- 
self didst say: Certainly I will be with thee," etc. 

32: 13 — 21. the wise steps which JACOB takes, to soften the 

HARD AND FIERCE HEART OF ESAU. (1739 B. C.) 

13 And he lodged there that night, and took of that which he 
had with him a present for Esau his brother : 

14 two hundred she-goats and twenty he-goats, two hundred ewes 
and twenty rams, 

15 thirty milk camels and their colts, forty cows and ten bulls, 
twenty she-asses and ten foals. 



CHAPTER 32: 13—21 385 

16 And he delivered them into the hand of his servants, every 
drove by itself, and said unto his servants, Pass over before me, and 
put a space betwixt drove and drove. 

17 And he commanded the foremost, saying, When Esau my 
brother meeteth thee, and asketh thee, saying, Whose art thou? and 
whither goest thou? and whose are these before thee? 

18 then thou shalt say, They are thy servant Jacob's; it is a 
present sent unto my lord Esau : and, behold, he also is behind us. 

19 And he commanded also the second, and the third, and all that 
followed the droves, saying, On this manner shall ye speak unto 
Esau, when ye find him : 

20 and ye shall say, Moreover, behold, thy servant Jacob is be- 
hind us. For he said, I will appease him with the present that goeth 
before me, and afterward I will see his face ; peradventure he will 
accept me. 

21 So the present passed over before him : and he himself lodged 
that night in the company. 

Jacob had prayed well, apparently in the very spot where he 
stood (the Jews usually prayed standing Mark 11: 25; Luke 18: 
11, 13); but after he had done this, he set himself to work in 
accordance with his prayer, and as if himself to give effect to it. 
It is more than doubtful whether he would have obtained his peti- 
tion, or would have obtained so abundant an answer, if he had 
acted in a different manner, or if he had left the matter in the 
hands of God, without doing any more himself. Thus it often hap- 
pens that our prayers yield little or no fruit, because we do not act 
in accordance with what we ask. Without waiting till night, Jacob 
set some 580 head of cattle, of different kinds, in five different 
droves, and delivered them into the hands of servants in whom 
he had entire confidence, commanding them to leave a good 
space between drove and drove, so that each drove that Esau met 
would be a fresh surprise; and he put into the mouths of the 
servants in charge the same humble message; so that this would 
be five times repeated in the ears of Esau, before he would meet 
with Jacob. All this, which formed, as the Hebrew reads, a small 
"army" in itself (see ch. 33: 8), he sent away at once; in which 
promptness he acted like a sensible man; "I will appease his 
wrath (he said) with the present that goeth before me and after 
that I will see his face; peradventure he will accept me." Vr. 
20. The wise king has said: 

"A man's gift maketh room for him, 

and bringeth him before great men." Prov. 18: 16. 

Thus Jacob prayed, as if everything depended on the mere 
and sovereign will of God; and thus he worked, as if every- 
thing depended on the wise providences that he himself should 
take; and in both he acted well. 



386 GENESIS 

32: 22 — 32. the victorious contest of jacob with the angel. 

(1739 b. c.) 

22 And he rose up that night, and took his two wives, and his 
two handmaids, and his eleven children,* and passed over the ford of 
the Jabbok. 

23 And he took them, and sent them over the stream, and sent 
over that which he had. 

24 And Jacob was left alone ; and there wrestled a man with him 
until the breaking of the day. 

25 And when he saw that he prevailed not against him, he touched 
the hollow of his thigh ; and the hollow of Jacob's thigh was strainedf 
as he wrestled with him. 

26 And he said, Let me go, for the day breaketh. And he said, 
I will not let thee go, except thou bless me. 

27 And he said unto him, What is thy name? And he said, 
Jacob. 

28 And he said, Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Is- 
raeli: : for thou hast striven with God and with men, and hast pre- 
vailed. 

29 And Jacob asked him, and said, Tell me, I pray thee, thy 
name. And he said, Wherefore is it that thou dost ask after my 
name? And he blessed him there. 

30 And Jacob called the name of the place Peniel|| : for, said he, 
I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved. 

31 And the sun rose upon him as he passed over Penuel, and he 
limped upon his thigh. 

32 Therefore the children of Israel eat not the sinew of the hip 
which is upon the hollow of the thigh, unto this day : because he 
touched the hollow of Jacob's thigh in the sinew of the hip. 

I* A. V. sons.] [fA. Y. and M. 8. Y., out of joint] 

%'ilxat is, lie who striveth with God. \\That is, The face of God. 

Verse 3 tells us that "Jacob sent (that is, he had sent) mes- 
sengers before him to Esau his brother, to the land of Seir, the 
country of Edom." At that time Jacob was probably in Ma- 
hanaim, traveling towards the south, while Esau was coming 
to meet him from the land of Seir, marching towards the north. 
The river or torrent of Jabbok lay between them, and Esau 
was now very near. Jacob thought it would be the wiser part 
to pass onward and meet him in the way, rather than to be- 
take himself to flight, or wait timidly for him on the north 
of the river. Having therefore sent before him, on the pre- 
vious evening, the magnificent present of nearly six hundred 
head of cattle, and having granted to his people some repose, 
in which he took no part, he arose in the night, and caused 
his family, and his people, and all his possessions to pass 
over the ford; and Jacob remained alone. It is a very' com- 
mon opinion that Jacob remained behind in order to seek 
God in prayer, and that while he was praying he had his con- 
test with the Angel. But this is in itself improbable, and 
the text says nothing about it. Verse 21 says, that having 
dispatched his presents for Esau, he himself passed the night 



CHAPTER 32: 22—32 387 

in the encampment. It would be midnight when, having con- 
ceded some rest to his people, he broke up camp and passed 
the river Jabbok. This would consume the greater part of 
the night that remained. He could pray better, and with all 
the privacy that he needed, on the same side of the river with 
his people; so that he was not seeking this retirement, with 
the river between them, separated from his family and his 
people. On the contrary, it is probable that Jacob remained 
behind until he was left alone, looking after the security of 
all, and that he was hastening to rejoin his family when that 
unknown person attacked him in the dark; and that this un- 
looked for delay, with the fright it caused him, had the especial 
aggravation, that it detained him from his family when it 
was most important that he should be with them. The contest 
was hand to hand and long, until the "dawning of the day." 
Undoubtedly he who at the beginning most desired to loose 
himself from the embrace of the other, was Jacob; but com- 
prehending during his struggle that this had something to do 
with his own security and that of his family, Jacob put forth 
all his powers, striving manfully. Little by little it dawned 
upon him that he whom he had within his embrace was more 
than human; especially when the Angel, seeing that he could 
not prevail against him (accommodating the phrase to the 
human weakness that fought with divinely imparted strength), 
touched the hollow of his thigh; which in the act was put 
out of joint; but Jacob continued tenaciously the struggle. The 
Angel was now the party who wished to disengage himself from 
the firm hold of Jacob (restraining in pity and compassion 
his strength, so as to equal his powers with those , of his an- 
tagonist), and he said: "Let me go, for the day breaketh!" 
But Jacob saw his opportunity, and returned as his only re- 
ply: "I will not let thee go until thou bless me!" and con- 
tinued resolutely the struggle. The Angel then asked him what 
was his name; and on replying: "Jacob," he took away the 
opprobrious name of "Jacob" (— Supplanter), and gave him 
the honorable name of "Israel" (="Striver with God," "War- 
rior or soldier of God," or "Prince who fights with God," etc., 
according to the individual pleasure and preference of different 
commentators) ; "for (said he) thou hast striven with God and 
with men and hast prevailed." Jacob undoubtedly understood 
that "the God" with whom he had striven was no other than 
the Angel himself with whom he was talking, and the "men" 
were doubtless Esau and his 400 men; but including Laban also. 
li Israel" in Hebrew seems to be a name derived from "Sarah," 



388 GENESIS 

the "princess"; although the Hebrew verb is never used except 
with reference to this memorable contest, and that only twice, 
here and in Hos. 12: 3, 4; and in both of them it is rendered 
in the Modern Spanish Version "he strove," or "contended." 
The A. V. renders the word in the former passage, "as c prince 
thou hast power with God and with men": and in the latter 
"he had power over the Angel"; which also the R. V. re- 
tains. 

Jacob, delighted beyond measure with having gained his 
cause, dared in his turn to ask him: "Tell me, I pray thee, 
what is thy name?" The other refused to tell him, but he 
blessed him there. Jacob nevertheless gave to the place the 
name of "Peniel"z="Face of God" (the ancient form of Penuel), 
saying: "For I have seen God face to face, and my life is pre- 
served"; with allusion to the popular belief that on seeing 
the face of God, anyone would die. Ch. 16: 13; Ex. 24: 11; 
Judg. 6: 22. Very different is this case from that in which 
Moses besought that he might see the glory of Jehovah, of 
which he already had a large experience; and Jehovah re- 
plied: "Thou canst not see my face; for man shall not see 
me and live." Ex. 33: 20. With respect to his divine essence, 
John 1: 18 says: "No man hath seen God at any time; the 
only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he 
hath declared him"; and with respect to his glory, as manifested 
in Mount Sinai, Moses himself said: "I do exceedingly fear 
and quake." Heb. 12: 21. But the invisible God has many 
times made visible manifestations of himself, in which he 
could be seen and known, as in the case we have before us; and 
for this purpose he has manifested himself under such forms. 
That popular belief, therefore, was without foundation. See 
the reasoning of Manoah's sensible wife with him, on this point, 
in Judg. 13: 21—23. 

And as the soldier glories in the scars which bear honor- 
able testimony to the battles from which he has come forth 
victorious, so Jacob "as he passed over Penuel, halted on his 
thigh"; and till the day of his death he carried with deep 
satisfaction this mark of that conflict, in which he came forth 
as conqueror both with respect to God and man. With regard 
to "the children of Israel not eating of the sinew of the thigh," 
or "the hip," I frankly confess that I do not understand it, for 
the tendon, or sinew, is not eaten; and till now no commentator 
I have seen has been able to shed light upon the point. 

This history, so interesting in itself, and so consolatory 
for the people of God, is thus related by the prophet Hosea: 



CHAPTER 32: 22—32 389 

"In the womb he took his brother by the heel; 

and in his manhood he had power with God: 

yea, he had power over the Angel, and prevailed: 

he wept and made supplication unto him: 

he found him in Bethel, 

and there he spake with us; 

even Jehovah, the God of Hosts: 

Jehovah is his memorial" (or memorial name). 

Hos. 12: 3—5. 

Blindly prejudiced must be that mind, or better said, that 
heart, which does not see in this history still another narrative 
of the corporeal manifestation of that divine Word, who 1700 
years later "was made flesh and dwelt among us" (John 1: 14); 
no longer to take and lay aside the human form as occasion 
might require, but to become truly and forever one of the race 
which he came to redeem, and to bind up his personal destinies 
eternally with our own; "the first-born from among the dead"; 
"the beginning of the [new] creation of God." Col. 1: 18; Rev. 
3: 14. 

In this contest of Jacob with "the Angel of the covenant" 
(which was really the conclusion and completion of the prayer 
which he offered in vrs. 9 — 12), we ought all to learn how 
to pray; and particularly in that declaration of his: "I will 
not let thee go until thou bless me!" Jesus said: "The king- 
dom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force''' 
Matt. 11: 12. The negligent hand and the lukewarm heart will 
never be able to obtain the blessing. Rev. 3: 16. If in prayer 
we are going to leave off for any trifle, being inconstant and of 
a "double mind," as James says: "Let not that man think he 
shall receive anything of the Lord." James 1:7. In the parable 
of the Unjust Judge, Jesus teaches us effectively "that it is 
necessary to pray always, and not to faint" (Luke 18:1 — 8); 
and in Luke 11: 5 — 8, he sets before us the effect and fruit of 
importunity, in the parable of the man who wanted three loaves 
of bread at midnight, and could not get them, because every- 
body was gone to bed; but he would take no denial, and kept 
on knocking till he got what he needed. "Because of his im- 
portunity" is in the Greek "because of his shamelessness," as 
if he, knocking, said: "7 will not go until I get it!" So it 
was with Jacob: "I will not let thee go until thou bless me!" 
"Lord, teach us to pray!" Luke 11: 1. 



390 GENESIS 

CHAPTER XXXIII. 

VBS. 1 — 11. THE MEETING BETWEEN ESAU AND JACOB. (1739 B. C.) 

1 And Jacob lifted up his eyes, and looked, and, behold, Esau 
was coming, and with him four hundred men. And he divided the 
children nnto Leah, and unto Rachel, and unto the two handmaids. 

2 And he put the handmaids and their children foremost, and 
Leah and her children after, and Rachel and Joseph hindermost. 

3 And he himself passed over before them, and bowed himself to 
the ground seven times, until he came near to his brother. 

4 And Esau ran to meet him, and embraced him, and fell on his 
neck, and kissed him : and they wept. 

5 And he lifted up his eyes, and saw the women and the chil- 
dren ; and said, Who are these with thee? And he said, The children 
whom God hath graciously given thy servant. 

6 Then the handmaids came near, they and their children, and 
they bowed themselves. 

7 And Leah also and her children came near, and bowed them- 
selves : and after came Joseph near and Rachel, and they bowed 
themselves. 

8 And he said, What meanest thou by all this company which I 
met? And he said, To find favor in the sight of my lord. 

9 And Esau said, I have enough, my brother ; let that which 
thou hast be thine. 

10 And Jacob said, Nay, I pray thee, if now I have found favor in 
thy sight, then receive my present at my hand ; forasmuch as I have 
seen thy face, as one seeth the face of God, and thou wast pleased 
with me. 

11 Take; I pray thee, my gift that is brought to thee ; because 
God hath dealt graciously with me, and because I have enough. And 
he urged him, and he took it. 

It would seem from ch. 32: 10 ("with my staff I passed this 
Jordan"), that the ford of the Jabbok, where Jacob crossed 
the river on this occasion could not be very far from the place 
where it empties into the Jordan. Farther up, the Jabbok passes 
as a foaming torrent through the elevated table-land of Gil- 
ead, between banks or mountains that rise from 1500 to 2000 
feet above its waters, and the ford would be very difficult, and 
even dangerous, by night. On crossing the river in the morn- 
ing, to rejoin his family and encampment, the sun arose upon 
him, when he was passing the site where later stood the 
city of Penuel. From that point, or on passing the river, 
he saw Esau coming with his 400 men. He hastily divided the 
children, putting each child with its own mother; placing the 
two maid-servants with their children first, and Leah with 
her six sons and one daughter, second, and Rachel with Joseph, 
last; but he himself passed on ahead of them. He placed the two 
maid-servants and their children first, as' was natural and 
proper; he placed Leah and her children second; for although 
she was his first wife, she was such by the trickery and cruel 
deceit which Laban practiced upon him; and in my opinion 
he did not do wrong in this. They had necessarily to march in 



CHAPTER 33: 1—11 391 

a certain order, and this was as good as any other. Rachel, 
whom he always regarded as his only proper and legitimate 
wife (see ch. 44: 27), and whom he loved with an ardor that 
not even her cold ashes of forty years, nor the scanty and 
hoary hairs of his own extreme old age were able to chill, 
he put her and her son last. In conformity with Oriental 
usages and the unavoidable results of polygamy, he was right 
in this also; although his declared partiality for the son of 
that wife was going to cause him very many and bitter afflic- 
tions. Jacob then passed on before them, and • bowed himself 
to the earth seven times, till he came to his brother. But 
God, who had wrought such a notable change in the feelings and 
purposes of Laban, wrought no less powerfully in those of 
Esau; so that he could not wait the humble approach of his 
brother, but ran to meet him, and throwing his arms around his 
neck, he kissed him; and they wept together. 

Among the persons who affect new and strange opinions, 
there are not wanting some who maintain that Esau did not 
go out to meet. Jacob with any hostile intent, but came with 
his 400 men only to receive his brother worthily and do him 
honor! as if the great fear which took possession of Jacob 
on receiving the reply which his messengers brought him, was 
that of the "wicked who flee when no man pursueth" (Prov. 
21: 8); or as if the victorious contest which he had sustained 
with the Angel the night before were only a combat with 
phantasms. On the contrary, it was a very real danger that 
faced him, and a very marvelous deliverance which God wrought 
for him; and so the Bible always treats of the matter. What- 
ever may have been the moment in which God wrought this 
notable change in the feelings and purposes of Esau, who left 
Seir with 400 armed men, and with hostile intent, it is prob- 
able that his conduct on this occasion was as unexpected to 
his own people as to Jacob, and that the change was no less 
a surprise to himself than to them. The prayer of Jacob, 
who placed himself under the protection of the promise and 
the safe-conduct of his God; the messengers with their separate 
droves of cattle, which he had sent the evening previous; the 
victorious contest he maintained with the Angel until the morn- 
ing, and his own humble submission, accompanied by his seven 
prostrations, all no doubt had part in working so unexpected 
a change in the feelings of Esau, whose reconciliation with 
his brother it would appear was complete and permanent. 

Esau then asked about the women and the children who at 
a little distance were coming toward him. Jacob without mak- 



392 GENESIS 

ing any account of the women (according to Oriental usage), 
replied: "They are the children whom God has graciously 
given thy servant," — a pious sentiment which it would be well 
in our day to awaken in the breasts of many people, and even 
of many people professing godliness. When asked with re- 
gard to the five herds of cattle which Esau had met in the 
way, and about which he no doubt had already received word 
from their drivers, Jacob replied that they were a gift, "to find 
favor in the sight of my lord" And when Esau excused him- 
self, alleging that he already had enough, and that Jacob should 
keep what was his, Jacob insisted, and Esau accepted them. No 
doubt it was a great satisfaction to Jacob to pass more than 
500 head of cattle over to the possession of Esau, not only to 
vent the deep satisfaction of his rejoicing heart, that he had 
seen the face of Esau (that terrible face from which twenty 
years before he had fled in terror — see ch. 28: 10, 11; 35: 1 and 
comments), "as one who sees the face of God"; but also be- 
cause it was to him a guaranty of peace for all time to come. 
We cannot indeed excuse the low servility of Jacob, who seems 
to have forgotten his new name (ch. 32: 28); but we must re- 
member that it was Jacob, and not Abraham; and Jacob was al- 
ways timid and distrustful. 

33: 12 17. THAT SAME DAY, SEPARATING FROM JACOB IN PEACE AND 

HARMONY, ESAU SET OUT ON HIS RETURN TO SEIR. (1739 B. C.) 

12 And he said, Let us take our journey, and let us go, and I 
will go before thee. 

13 And he said unto him, My lord knoweth that the children are 
tender, and that the flocks and herds with me have their young: and 
if they overdrive them one day, all the flocks will die. 

14 Let my lord, I pray thee, pass over before his servant : and 
I will lead on gently, according to the pace of the cattle that are be- 
fore me and according to the pace of the children, until I come unto 
my lord unto Seir. 

15 And Esau said, Let me now leave with thee some of the folk 
that are with me. And he said, What needeth it? let me find favor 
in the sight of my lord. 

16 So Esau returned that day on his way unto Seir. 

17 And Jacob journeyed to Succoth, and built him a house, and 
made booths for his cattle: therefore the name of the place is called 
Succoth.* 

*That is, Booths. 

Esau then generously proposed that, as they were going in 
the same direction, toward the south, they should travel to- 
gether, and that he would go before Jacob, as if for his de- 
fence; for in returning to Seir, Esau might march either to 
the east or the west of the Salt Sea. It would have been an 
interesting sight if the two brothers had thus returned to the 



CHAPTER 33: 12—17 393 

paternal home. But Jacob excused himself, for reasons which 
appear to us but little satisfactory, after the forced march of 
400 miles which he had made from Padan-aram to the moun- 
tain country of Gilead, in some fifteen or twenty days. Ch. 
31: 23. Esau therefore offered to leave with him a part of 
the men he brought with him: but Jacob, suspicious and dis- 
trustful, whose natural temper again manifested itself in un- 
favorable contrast with the frank generosity of Esau, did not 
feel comfortable in the presence of those armed men, whose com- 
ing had caused him so great alarm. It is plain that he still 
distrusted Esau and his people, and could not feel at ease 
until he had got completely rid of them. He excused himself, 
therefore, from the second offer as he had done from the 
former, with the promise of following on slowly, until he 
came to his lord Esau in the land of Seir. It is probable that 
this was nothing more than part of the excuse, to get rid of 
his brother, whose superiority and lordship Jacob confessed 
with too great frequency and servility, to feel quite easy in 
his presence. On that same day, therefore, Esau took leave 
of Jacob, and began his march to the land of Seir, at the south 
of the Salt Sea, and naturally by the shorter route, to the east of 
the sea. 

It seems that Esau had left his father Isaac in the land of 
Canaan, although old and blind, and had gone to Seir some 
years before; to judge by the ascendency which he had al- 
ready acquired there. Ch. 36: 6 — 8 seems to indicate that he 
went back to Canaan after Jacob's return, and that after this 
he again returned to the land of Seir, for the same reason 
that Lot separated from Abraham; to wit, the immense mul- 
titude of their flocks and herds. Ch. 13: 6. In any case, it 
is extremely doubtful whether Jacob, who had received com- 
mandment from God to return to the land and home of his 
father, had any intention of following Esau to Seir, which was 
far to the S. E. of Beersheba; and this seems to have been 
the thought of the historian, who goes on to say that Jacob, 
changing at this point his direction, removed his encampment 
to the north, or N. W. (crossing anew the Jabbok for this 
purpose), and went to "Succoth"; where he built for himself 
a house; and made booths for his cattle, with the purpose of 
wintering there. From this circumstance the location took the 
name of "Succoth" (—Booths). Succoth was to the north of 
the Jabbok, in the plain of the Jordan, on the eastern side 
of the river. 2 Chron. 4: 16, 17. It is not difficult for us to 
understand why Jacob did not follow his brother to Seir; but 



394 GENESIS 

it does cause us no little surprise that lie did not continue his 
journey to Beersheba, where he had left his aged parents twenty 
years before. See ch. 35: 27 and comments. Perhaps the slow- 
ness of Jacob in returning to his father's side, and the reason 
why Esau had withdrawn from his encampment to establish 
himself in the mountain country of Seir, may have one and 
the same explanation; having to do, perhaps, with the senility 
or dotage of the blind old man, who twenty years before was 
such an invalid that he himself and everybody else believed 
that he was soon to die. Ch. 27: 2, 41. In this view of the 
case, it is likely that Jacob changed his plan and took his 
journey towards the north, in virtue of information which 
Esau had given him of the family — the death of his mother, and 
the imbecility of his father. 

33: 18 — 20. jacob crosses the Jordan, and goes to the city of 
shechem. (Of uncertain date.) 

18 And Jacob came in peace to the city* of Shechem, which is in 
the land of Canaan, when he came from Paddan-aram ; and encamped 
before the city. 

19 And he bought the parcel of ground, where he had spread his 
tent,f at the hand of the children of Hamor, Shechem's father, for 
a hundred pieces of money.? 

20 And he erected there an altar, and called it El-Elohe-Israel. 
[*Or, to Shalem, a city, etc.] [fJ/o<Z. Span. "Per. pitched his tents.] 

tHeb. kesitah. 

Jacob must have remained several years in Succoth, where 
he built for himself a house and made booths for his cattle. 
Vr. 17. This would be but a few months after his departure 
from Padan-aram; a time when Joseph and Dinah (who were 
nearly of the same age) were a little more than six years old 
(ch. 30:25, 32; 31:41); and it would seem from vrs. 17 and 
18 that Jacob passed straight from Succoth to Shechem, where 
the rape of Dinah took place, seemingly only a few months 
after the family had arrived there. She must at that time 
have been twelve or fourteen years old; so that Jacob would 
necessarily have spent seven or eight years in Succoth, or in 
some other place not mentioned, before going to Shechem. 
During these seven or eight years it must have been that 
"Judah, separating himself from his brethren" (being at the 
time a youth of 15 years perhaps), crossed the Jordan, and 
formed in the land of Canaan that matrimonial alliance which 
cost him and his family so dear. See comments on ch. 38: 1, 2. 

Leaving at last his house and his cattle-booths in Succoth, 
Jacob crossed the river Jordan, and removed to the city of 
Shechem, in what was afterwards the mountain country of 



CHAPTER 33: 18—20 395 

Ephraim, and bought for himself a large tract of land, where 
he had encamped before the city. The text says "he bought 
a part of the field"; because the cultivated land around the 
cities was all open, and without fences, and every owner had 
"his part" determined by landmarks, or heaps of stones. See 
Ruth 2:3; Deut. 19: 14. 

The lexicographer Gesenius denies that the word "kesitah" 
signifies a sheep or a lamb (as given in the margin of our 
English Bible), and fixes its value at about four shekels, 
or $2.40, each, of our money; which would make the price 
of that piece of land equal to that of the field and cave of 
Machpelah which Abraham bought in Mamre, near to Hebron, 
130 years before (ch. 23: 16); to wit, 400 shekels, of 60 cents 
each, or $240 of our money. We shall judge the price exorbitant 
in both cases, when we consider that many years after this, 
a slave was worth 30 shekels (Ex. 21: 32), and the hire of a 
free and intelligent man, "a father and a priest," did not ex- 
ceed ten shekels a year, with his victuals, and a suit of ap- 
parel. Judg. 17: 10. Abraham weighed the money in balances, 
while Jacob apparently made payment in pieces of recognized 
value called kesitahs. As the art of coining money was not 
invented for many ages after this, these pieces of money would 
be bars or ingots of metal, cut or moulded, and having their 
value stamped on them. But the use of money, in pieces of 
determined value, marks a great advance in the transaction of 
business. 

The words "came in peace" may signify that there had been 
some disturbance of the peace in Succoth; or it may contain 
an allusion to his return in peace to the land of Canaan (which 
always in the Bible signifies the country to the west of the 
Jordan), from whence he had gone forth 27 or 28 years before, 
and seems to indicate the fulfilment of the term named in 
his vow — "so that I return in peace to the house of my father." 
Others, however, prefer to translate it: "And Jacob came to 
Shalem, a city of Shechem"; which would perhaps give us 
to understand that Shalem was, at that time, the name of the 
city of Shechem, the son of Hamor, which later was called by 
his name, — a famous city of Israel, situated in what was and 
still is the most beautiful and fertile part of the country. 

There Jacob built an altar and called it: "El Elohe-Israel" 
(=zGod, the God of Israel; or, the Mighty God of Israel), mak- 
ing use for the first time of the new name which the Angel 
gave him when Jacob contended victoriously with him. 



396 GENESIS 

CHAPTER XXXIV. 

VES. 1 — 5. DINAH, THE ONLY DAUGHTER OF JACOB, IS EAVISHED. 

(1732 B. C.) 

1 And Dinah, the daughter of Leah, whom she bare unto Jacob, 
went out to see the daughters of the land. 

2 And Shechem the son of Hamor the Hivite, the prince of the 
land, saw her ; and he took her, and lay with her, and humbled her. 

3 And his soul clave unto Dinah the daughter of Jacob, and he 
loved the damsel, and spake kindly unto the damsel. 

4 And Shechem spake unto his father Hamor, saying, Get me 
this damsel to wife. 

5 Now Jacob heard that he had defiled Dinah his daughter; and 
his sons were with his cattle in the field : and Jacob held his peace 
until they came. 

In the midst of such distinguished mercies, and so great 
honors, which God granted to his servant Jacob, there befell him 
the bitterest and most humiliating of calamities. His daughter 
Dinah, being of nearly the same age as Joseph (who when sold 
into Egypt was 17 years old, ch. 37: 2), must have been at this 
time twelve or fourteen. They had lived probably some little 
while before the city, and would be well known by the people, 
when Dinah went out one day "to see the daughters of the land." 
It is probable that she went out more than once, though there 
is nothing in the Hebrew to indicate it, and it may be that 
consequences so fatal to many followed upon the first act of 
indiscretion which she committed. The Jewish historian Jo- 
sephus says that it was on the occasion of some feast of the 
people, and that Dinah's curiosity being awakened, she "went 
out to see the finery of the women of the land." It seems im- 
possible that she should have gone out without accompaniment. 
But it is very plain that she did not have the attendance of 
persons capable of protecting her in the emergency which pre- 
sented itself; and for that reason it is probable that she went 
out without the knowledge of her father, who was well acquainted 
with the customs, none too pure, of the Canaanites. There 
Shechem, the son of Hamor, the prince of the country, saw 
her, and at once became so enamored of her, that he took 
her by force and violated her person. It is probable that as 
a prince, accustomed to make use of his authority to effect 
his ends, he did with her as he would have done with one 
of his own people. Nevertheless he loved the damsel very 
sincerely, and consoled her in her sorrow and humiliation with 
his caresses, and with the promise of honorable marriage. He 
kept her in his own house, by force no doubt, but did every- 
thing in his power to make reparation for the crime committed, 
proposing and promising to marry her openly and honorably. 



CHAPTER 34: 6—12 397 

Barring *he crime already committed (which for people of their 
degraded customs would have been accounted a signal honor, 
rather than a misfortune, if accompanied with a promise of 
marriage to a prince), the procedure of the young man wa3 
in every respect gentlemanly and worthy of a prince. Jacob 
heard of what had happened, but he held his peace until his 
sons returned from the field or country, where they were with 
the cattle. 

34: 6 — 12. hamor and shechem, his son, go out to the en- 
campment OF JACOB TO TREAT OF THE MATTER WITH HIM AND 
HIS SONS. (1732 B. C.) 

6 And Hamor the father of Shechem went out unto Jacob to 
commune with him. 

7 And the sons of Jacob came in from the field when they heard 
it : and the men were grieved, and they were very wroth, because 
he had wrought folly in Israel in lying with Jacob's daughter ; which 
thing ought not to be done. 

8 And Hamor communed with them, saying, The soul of my son 
Shechem longeth for your daughter : I pray you, give her unto him 
to wife. 

9 And make ye marriages with us ; give your daughters unto us, 
and take our daughters unto you. 

10 And ye shall dwell with us: and the land shall be before 
you ; dwell and trade ye therein, and get you possessions therein. 

11 And Shechem said unto her father and unto her brethren, 
Let me find favor in your eyes, and what ye shall say unto me I 
will give. 

12 Ask me never so much dowry and gift, and I will give accord- 
ing as ye shall say unto me : but give me the damsel to wife. 

In this case, as in every other, the Bible, wholly different 
from all merely human writings, does not dissemble or excuse' 
the wickedness of the sons of Jacob, nor minimize in any respect 
the noble frankness and generosity of Hamor and his son. In 
possession of their own city (a walled city, vr. 20), and in the 
most prosperous part of the land of Canaan, they might well 
have retired within their defences, and from thence have de- 
fied Jacob and his encampment of nomads. But on the con- 
trary, and without waiting for the complaints of the father 
and brothers of Dinah, they presented themselves in the en- 
campment of Jacob to treat of the matter and to remedy as 
far as possible the wrong already done, with offers of legitimate 
and honorable marriage. The sons of Jacob who were in 
the field, on hearing of it, left their cattle with their herdsmen, 
and came to the city, distressed, chagrined and burning in 
anger. Hamor, as the prince of the country, made them from 
his point of view the most flattering offers, together with a part 
in what is still the most desirable region of Palestine; while 
the young man, with a humility and courtesy above all praise, 



398 GENESIS 

offered them that he would do whatever they said, and pay 
dowry and gifts as much as they might appoint, provided only 
they would give him the young woman for his wife; who must 
have been very beautiful to inspire him with such a passion. 
Of course the offer of Hamor and his son, that the two peoples 
should unite by means of intermarriages, and become one 
nation, was totally contrary to the purpose of God in separat- 
ing the children of Abraham from all other peoples and nations; 
but it was not on that account the less honorable on their 
part, or the less advantageous for Jacob and his sons, from their 
point of view. 

34: 13 — 17. THE TREACHEROUS REPLY OF THE SONS OF JACOB. 

(1732 b. c.) 

13 And the sons of Jacob answered Shechem and Hamor hia 
father with guile, and spake, because he had defiled Dinah their 
sister, 

14 and said unto them, We cannot do this thing, to give our 
sister to one that is uncircumcised ; for that were a reproach unto us. 

15 Only on this condition will we consent unto you : if ye will be 
as we are, that every male of you be circumcised ; 

16 then will we give our daughters unto you, and we will take 
your daughters to us, and we will dwell with you, and we will become 
one people. f 

17 But if ye will not hearken unto us, to be circumcised ; then 
will we take our daughter, and we will be gone. 

The sons of Jacob had evidently consulted among themselves 
about the case and the proposals made, and it may be that 
they had arranged some plan of vengeance before they returned 
from the field; and intent on taking a complete revenge, rather 
than on remedying as far as possible the wrong done their 
sister, they accepted the offer of Hamor and Shechem, but 
with one indispensable condition, to wit, that these princes 
and all their people should become Hebrews, by receiving the 
distinctive rite of circumcision. Horrible prostitution of a re- 
ligious rite, and this to cover the blackest and most infamous 
treachery! It is difficult to conceive of so artful a plot and 
so hideous a crime being arranged in a moment; for which 
reason it is natural to suppose that they heard in the field 
something with regard to the proposals of Shechem and his 
father, and had already their plan well prepared. On this 
condition, therefore, they agreed to accede to the wishes of 
Shechem and his father, with the understanding that they 
should become Israelites, rather than that Jacob and his people 
should become Canaanites. In this Jacob was not consulted; 
a circumstance to which he perhaps refers in the words: 



CHAPTER 34: 18—24 399 

"Oh my soul, come not thou into their counsel; 

unto their assembly, my glory, he not thou united!" Ch. 49: 6. 

34: 18 — 24. hamor and shechem accept the conditions, and 
gain the consent of their people: they all receive the dis- 
tinctive rite of israelites. (1732 b. c.) 

18 And their words pleased Hamor, and Shechem Hamor's son. 

19 And the young man deferred not to do the thing, because he 
had delight in Jacob's daughter : and he was honored above all the 
house of his father. 

20 And Hamor and Shechem his son came unto the gate of their 
city, and communed with the men of their city, saying, 

21 These men are peaceable with us; therefore let them dwell 
in the land, and trade therein ; for, behold, the land is large enough 
for them ; let us take their daughters to us for wives, and let us 
give them our daughters. 

22 Only on this condition will the men consent unto us to 
dwell with us, to become one people, if every male among us be 
circumcised, as they are circumcised. 

23 Shall not their cattle and their substance and all their beasts 
be ours? only let us consent unto them, and they will dwell with us. 

24 And unto Hamor and unto Shechem his son hearkened all that 
went out of the gate of his city ; and every male was circumcised, 
all that went out of the gate of his city. 

Shechem and his father, without suspecting any malice, saw 
the reasonableness of the change proposed in their own plan, and 
accepted the modification; since it little mattered to them (as 
is true of worldly people generally), whether they were Israelites 
or Canaanites, so that they gained their object: Shechem 
would gain his beloved Dinah, and Hamor, as the prince 
of the country, would perhaps double the numbers and the 
riches of his principality. Without any difficulty, therefore, 
they made the agreement; and as the young man, different from 
ravishers in general, was more and more blindly in love with 
the daughter of Jacob, he did not wish to delay for a day or 
an hour the fulfilment of the condition inexorably imposed on 
them: and he was the most distinguished (not the "most honor- 
able," as says our common English Version) of the family of 
his father — the most popular, and the one who had most in- 
fluence among the people, both for what he was, and for 
what he was going to be, as the presumptive heir of his 
father. 

The two princes repaired at once to the gate of the city, 
where all public business was transacted, and made use of 
arguments and persuasions with the people; and their authority 
gave double effect to their words. "Obeyed," in the Spanish 
of vr. 24, is the ordinary translation of the Hebrew to "hear" or 
"hearken" when it has reference to the words of one who has au- 
thority to command. The arguments which they used were (1) 



400 GENESIS 

that the land was amply large for both peoples; (2) that Jacob 
and his people were highly respectable and rich, and would be 
a valuable acquisition for the State; (3) the prospect of new 
matrimonial alliances; which would not fail to have a powerful 
attraction for the young people of both sexes; as it happened 
with the young prince; (4) the great increase of political power, 
which the incorporation of the two peoples would give them, 
was an argument which appealed to the patriotic spirit of all; 
and (5) the increase of material riches would put in vibration 
a cord of the human heart which all the world understands. 
Some years later, when this same Jacob and his sons went down 
into Egypt, Pharaoh himself regarded their coming, with all their 
possessions, as an event both interesting and important for his 
kingdom. Ch. 45: 16—20. 

As Jacob apparently had no other daughter but Dinah, and 
his older sons had hardly begun to have families of their own, 
it is plain that the marriages proposed were with women of 
Jacob's encampment — his servants, or slaves, "born in his house 
or bought with his money" (ch 17:13, 27); which gives us a 
surprising idea both of his riches and of the numbers of his 
people; and besides, it also greatly modifies the ordinary idea 
of the slavery of those ancient times. See the comment on 
ch. 15: 2, 3. Here we see that the free-born Canaanites did 
not disdain matrimonial alliances with the women-servants of 
Jacob, but exactly the contrary; and we shall see farther on 
that the very sons of Jacob married women of the same class, 
with such uniformity, that one of the sons of Simeon bears the 
mark or note of being "the son of a Canaanitish woman" (Heb. 
the Canaanitess, ch. 46:10); and we are particularly told (as 
of an exceptional case) that all the family of Judah proceeded 
from two women of the country, Canaanites likewise. Ch. 38: 2, 
6, 11. 

These arguments and persuasions, backed by the influence 
and authority of the two princes, had the desired effect; and 
they all submitted to the administration of the rite of circumci- 
sion — "all that went out of the gate of the city." The neces- 
sity of entering in and going out by one or a very few gates, 
greatly facilitated the matter; and when the princes, and the 
grandees, and the generality of the people set the example, such 
is the disposition and character of mankind, that the rest would 
of themselves seek the rite which was already "the mode." In 
this way the treacherous sons of Jacob gained their object, viz., 
that of putting Hamor and Shechem, with all their male sub- 
jects, in such a condition that they were incapable of defending 



CHAPTER 34: 25—29 401 

themselves. In this we see manifested the illimitable confidence 
which Joshua and the princes of Israel had in their God, that 
they obeyed without hesitation the divine order to put the 
whole encampment of Israel in the same defenceless condition, 
after they had crossed the Jordan and were in the very presence 
of the Canaanites. Josh. 5: 2 — 8. 

34: 25 — 29. the inhuman and saceilegious vengeance taken by 
simeon and levi, and by the otheb sons of jacob. (1732 

B. C.) 

25 And it came to pass on the third day, when they were sore, 
that two of the sons of Jacob, Simeon and Levi, Dinah's brethren, 
took each man his sword, and came upon the city unawares,* and slew 
all the males. 

26 And they slew Hamor and Shechem his son with the edge of 
the sword, and took Dinah out of Shechem's house, and went forth. 

27 The sons of Jacob came upon the slain, and plundered the 
city, because they had defiled their sister. 

28 They took their flocks and their herds and their asses, and that 
which was in the city, and that which was in the field ; 

29 and all their wealth, and all their little ones and their wives, 
took they captive and made a prey, even all that was in the house. 

•Or, boldly. 

On the third day, when the men of the city were incapable 
of self-defence, Simeon and Levi, brothers of Dinah by the 
same mother, girded on each his sword, and entered boldly 
into the city, and going from street to street, and from house 
to house, they put to the sword all the males; and all this 
on account of the crime of a single man! We do not know 
what were the determining reasons why only Simeon and Levi 
should undertake this diabolical work — they only of all the 
sons of Jacob, they only of all the six full brothers of Dinah; 
unless it be that the atrocity of the crime and the terrible 
consequences to which it would expose them all, at the last 
moment deterred them from the execution of what was evi- 
dently the plan of all. What is said in vr. 13 does not permit 
us to suppose that the audacious act of Simeon and Levi pre- 
vented the performance of an agreement which the rest had 
made with Hamor and Shechem in good faith. All of them, 
then, took part in the plan, and all of them rushed upon the 
booty, although Simeon and Levi only, because more resolute, 
daring, or rash, attacked the city and put to the sword all the 
men. The curse (for it was nothing less) which their father 
pronounced upon these two sons at the time of. his death, 
shows that their crime was more aggravated and horrible than 
the part which the rest took in the matter. It is probable 
that if they had not attacked the city, the others would have 



402 GENESIS 

done nothing. The words of their father, forty years after, show 
his concentrated abhorrence of the act: 

"Simeon and Levi are brethren; 

weapons of violence are their swords [M. S. V., their 

compacts.] 
Oh my soul, come not thou into their council; 
unto their assembly, my glory, be not thou united; 
for in their anger they slew a man [or men], 
and in their self-will they hocked an ox [or oxen]. 
Cursed be their anger, for it was fierce; 
and their wrath, for it was cruel! 

I will divide them in Jacob and scatter them in Israel." 

Ch. 49: 5—7. 

This terrible vengeance we are three times told was because 
(in the person of their young prince) the Shechemites had 
violated their sister. 

34: 30, 31. jacob is greatly troubled, and heaps bitter re- 
proaches ON SIMEON AND LEVI: THEY JUSTIFY, OR EXCUSE, THEIR 
CONDUCT BY THE DISHONOR DONE TO THEIR SISTER. (1732 B. C.) 

30 And Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, Ye have troubled me, 
to make me odious to the inhabitants of the land, among the Canaan- 
ites and the Perizzites : and, I being few in number, they will gather 
themselves together against me and smite me ; and I shall be de- 
stroyed, I and my house. 

31 And they said, Should he deal with our sister as with a harlot? 

Jacob was naturally timid; but if he had been as valiant as 
he was timid, this act of Simeon and Levi, as insane as it 
was criminal, and the sack of the city in which all his sons 
took part, placed him in circumstances such as would fill him 
with terror. But when he reproached bitterly and with deep 
feeling their conduct and the extreme peril which was threaten- 
ing them all (and which only the divine interposition averted, 
ch. 35: 5), they gave for sufficient answer: "should he deal 
with our sister as with a harlot?" Notable from every point 
of view is this reply, and serves In part to explain, and in 
part has served to perpetuate, what has been and still is a 
distinctive trait of the Jewish people. It is the prerogative of 
God to bring good out of evil; and there can be no doubt that, 
however horrible the crime of the sons of Jacob in this mat- 
ter, it has served powerfully to mould the social customs of 
that nation, in all their wanderings, whose women, taken as 
a whole, are perhaps the most virtuous in the world. Even in 
the days of Solomon, the adulteress, the harlot, the courtesan, 



CHAPTER 35: 1—5 403 

whom he paints in the book of Proverbs, is ordinarily "the 
strange (or foreign) woman" in Hebrew, and "the daughter of 
a strange (or foreign) land." See Prov. 2: 16; 5: 20; 7:5. 
Indelible has been the impression produced by this most horrible 
deed in the mind of the people of Israel, — but beneficent. The 
honor of woman is worth more than her life; and when any peo- 
ple or nation comes to regard it with indifference, or to palliate 
as a mere slip the dishonor of their women, its ruin is near at 
hand. 

CHAPTER XXXV. 

VES. 1 — 5. GOD INTERPOSES TO PREVENT AN EXEMPLARY AND WELL 
MERITED PUNISHMENT PUTTING AN END TO THE HOPES OF THE 
WORLD. (1732 B. C.) 

1 And God said unto Jacob, Arise, go up to Beth-el, and dwell 
there : and make there an altar unto God, who appeared unto thee 
when thou fleddest from the face of Esau thy brother. 

2 Then Jacob said unto his household, and to all that were 
with him, Put away the foreign gods* that are among you, and 
purify yourselves, and change your garments : 

3 and let us arise, and go up to Beth-el ; and I will make there 
an altar unto God, who answered me in the day of my distress, and 
was with me in the way which I went. 

4 And they gave unto Jacob all the foreign gods which were in 
their hand, and the rings which were in their ears ; and Jacob hid 
them under the oakf which was by Shechem. 

5 And they journeyed : and a terror of God was upon the cities 
that were round about them, and they did not pursue after the 
sons of Jacob. 

*A. V and M. S. Y., strange gods. ^Or, terebinth. 

In this moment of supreme exigency and perplexity for Jacob, 
and of the gravest danger to the cause of God in this world, 
the "Keeper of Israel, who neither slumbers nor sleeps" (Ps. 
121: 4), interposed his arm, not for the protection of criminals, 
but for the defence of his own cause and kingdom, and to 
carry forward his plans for the redemption of mankind; 

"Remembering his holy covenant, 

the oath which he sware unto Abraham cur father." 

Luke 1: 72, 73. 
He therefore commanded Jacob to break up his encampment, 
and remove southward to Bethel, and dwell there; and to 
make there an altar (and offer its corresponding sacrifices, of 
course), to the God who had appeared to him on another oc- 
casion of imminent peril, "when he was fleeing from the face 
of Esau his brother." This plainly reminded Jacob of his 
sin in deferring for seven or eight years the fulfilment of the 



404 GENESIS 

vow he had made in Bethel and seems to give us to under- 
stand that God took occasion from the rape of Dinah and the 
crime and the peril consequent thereupon, and from the an- 
guish of the patriarch, to bring to his memory his neglected 
duties. It is useless to ask why he did not remind him of this 
sooner: God usually makes the errors of his children to serve 
likewise for their correction. 

When we call to mind the act of Rachel, the favorite wife 
of Jacob, in stealing the gods of her father and hiding them 
beneath her, as a treasure (ch. 31: 19, 30, 34), and the fact 
related in vr. 2 of this chapter, that the family and all the en- 
campment of Jacob was still infested with "strange gods" we 
will not allow to pass unobserved the circumstance, twice re- 
peated, that he was going up to Bethel to worship the God 
of Abraham, the same who appeared there to him, when he 
was fleeing from the face of Esau; — the God who had answered 
him in the day of his distress. 

This slowness of Jacob to fulfil the vow made in Bethel, which 
he ought to have performed when he "returned in peace" from 
Padan-aram, rather than seven or eight years after his re- 
turn, naturally produced other acts of carelessness and negligence 
in the service of God. It does not strike us as strange, there- 
fore, that by consent or connivance of Jacob, the idolatries of 
Haran were still practiced by the generality of his people, and 
even in the bosom of his own family. "Then Jacob said unto 
Ms household and unto all that were with him: Put away the 
strange gods that are among you," etc. Vrs. 2, 3. The mercy, 
goodness and fidelity of God, of which Jacob makes so feeling 
mention in these verses, place in an odious light, his long 
delay in performing what he had vowed to do 28 years before. 
But although late, Jacob began in Shechem to cleanse his en- 
campment of idolatry, as became the vow of him who had said: 
"then shall Jehovah be my God" and, by necessary implication, 
the God of his encampment. "So they gave unto Jacob all 
the strange gods that were in their hands, and the rings that 
were in their ears; and Jacob hid them under the oak (or 
terebinth) which was in Shechem." The ear-rings it is to 
be supposed, would bear some insignia of the idolatries of 
Haran; which placed them in the same condemnation. We 
have here "ear-rings" instead of the "nose-ring" of ch. 24: 47. 
Three hundred years later, Joshua celebrated a covenant with 
the people, likewise in Shechem, and he made them to swear 
that they would put away the strange gods that were among 
them, in order to serve Jehovah alone; and taking a great 



CHAPTER 35: 6—8 405 

stone he raised it up there beneath the oak that was by the 
Sanctuary of the Lord, to serve as a witness of this oath. 
Josh. 24: 26. The two "oaks" mentioned may have been the 
same tree; oaks were long-lived in Palestine, and both are 
spoken of as "the oak": yet in Hebrew the words are not quite 
the same, and the former has the alternative rendering, "or 
terebinth," given in the margin; words derived from the Hebrew 
root "el" (—strong, mighty), and supposed by many to be ap- 
plied loosely to any of the great and "mighty" trees of ancient 
Palestine. 

The words "purify yourselves and change your garments" 
have reference to the ablutions of their persons and their 
clothing; which signified the putting away of their past cus- 
toms and the preparation of their hearts to appear in Bethel be- 
fore God. 

So they did, and Jehovah caused to fall on the cities round 
about them such a terror, that they took no further steps to 
punish the sons of Jacob, for the crime that they had com- 
mitted (comp. ch. 34:30); which does not mean that God 
protected vice and wickedness, but that he carried forward 
his own plans and fulfilled his holy covenant, in spite of the 
wickednesses of the sons of Jacob; and so he yet does. 

35: 6 — 8. jacob in bethel. (1732 b. c.) 

6 So Jacob came to Luz, which is in the land of Canaan (the 
same is Beth-el), he and all the people that were with him. 

7 And he built there an altar, and called the place El-beth-el;* 
because there God was revealed unto him, when he fled from the 
face of his brother. 

8 And Deborah Rebekah's nurse died, and she was buried below 
Beth-el under the oak : and the name of it was called Allon-bacuth.t 

*That is, The God of Bethel. ^That is, The Oak of Weeping. 

The place was still called "Luz"; its old name, which it pre- 
served till the days of the conquest; when the Israelites took 
it by assault, and fixed thenceforward its name as "Bethel." 
Judg. 1: 23, 26. As we have already observed more than once, 
"the land of Canaan," in the Bible, is always the country to 
the west of the Jordan (Josh. 22: 11 — 19), in which Jacob 
had been ever since he passed over from Succoth to Shechem. 
There, in Bethel, he built an altar to Jehovah, who in this place 
had revealed himself to him, when he went fleeing from the 
face of Esau; and he fulfilled there his vows; which fact is 
implied in the mention of the altar which he built; on which 
it is to be supposed that he offered very numerous sacrifices 
according to the tenor of his vow — "and this stone, which I 
have set up for a pillar, shall be God's house; and of all 



406 GENESIS 

that thou shalt give me I will surely give the tenth unto thee." 
Ch. 28: 22. Many hundreds of victims would he sacrifice on 
that altar, if he offered there a tenth of all the flocks and herds 
he brought back with him from Padan-aram, according to the 
terms of his vow. 

In vr. 1 of this chapter, God said to Jacob: "Go up to 
Bethel, and dwell there" ; a word which signifies a long residence 
rather than a short one; and according to the common chronol- 
ogy it was of two or three years' duration. How long the 
time was we have no means of determining; but there Deborah, 
the nurse of Rebekah, Jacob's mother died. It is worthy of 
remark that we have no notice whatever of the death of Re- 
bekah, but we have of her nurse and handmaid, of whom we 
have express mention that she accompanied her young mistress 
from Haran, 100 years before (ch. 24:29); and she died, not 
in the encampment of Isaac, but in that of Jacob; not in 
Beersheba, or in Mamre, but in Bethel. Rebekah was doubt- 
less already dead, and it is probable that her nurse, not finding 
herself comfortable in the encampment of Isaac (probably for 
the same reason that Esau had left it, and Jacob had not re- 
turned to it), she transferred herself to the encampment of 
Jacob when he came back to the land of Canaan, in order to 
be near to the favorite son of her mistress. There it seems 
that she was very highly esteemed; for the tree beneath whose 
shade they buried her, was called "The Oak of Weeping," on 
account of the lamentation they made over her. Comp. ch. 
50: 11. 

35: 9 — 15. god again appears to jacob, and confirms to him 
all the promises and blessings previously given. (1732 to 

1729 B. C.) 

9 And God appeared unto Jacob again, when he came from 
Paddan-aram, and blessed him. 

10 And God said unto him, Thy name is Jacob: thy name shall 
not be called any more Jacob, but Israel shall be thy name: and 
he called his name Israel. 

11 And God said unto him, I am God Almighty: be fruitful and 
multiply; a nation and a company of nations shall be of thee, and 
kings shall come out of thy loins ; 

12 and the land which I gave unto Abraham and Isaac, to thee I 
will give it, and to thy seed after thee will I give the land. 

13 And God went up from him in the place where he spake with 
him. 

14 And Jacob set up a pillar in the place where he spake with 
him, a pillar of stone: and he poured out a drink-offering thereon, 
and poured oil thereon. 

15 And Jacob called the name of the place where God spake with 
him, Beth-el. 



CHAPTER 35: 16—20 407 

Notable was this appearing of God, visible and palpable; 
for verse 13 informs us that God spake to him in a certain 
determinate spot, and from that very place he went up, on de- 
parting from him; and vr. 14 tells us that Jacob (who was 
distinguished for the pillars, or monuments of commemora- 
tion, which he erected), set up a pillar to mark this particular 
spot, and poured upon it oil and libations of wine, and he again 
named it Bethel = House of God. We have already said (on ch. 
28: 18, 19) that "House of God" did not signify any material 
edifice; for although the place was always esteemed sacred, 
we do not read that any altar or sanctuary was erected there, 
till Jeroboam I. consecrated it to the worship of his golden 
calves. 1 Kings 12:29, 31; Amos 7:12, 13. And yet there 
are several references to "Bethel," particularly in the book of 
Judges — a period of confusion and disorder, both in political 
and religious matters — which are extremely difficult to explain 
without supposing that there was some kind of sanctuary there 
(see Judg. 20:18, 26; 21:2); unless "Beth-el" in these places 
be translated "House of God," as is found in the common 
English Version and the Spanish Reina-Valera. Not "Beth-el," 
however, but "Beift-TmeZoMm" is the Hebrew of invariable 
use for "the House of God"; unless these two passages be an 
exception. 

35: 16 — 20. the death of eachel. (1729 b. c.) 

16 And they journeyed from Beth-el : and there was still some 
distance to come to Ephrath : and Rachel travailed, and she had 
hard labor. 

17 And it came to pass, when she was in hard labor, that the 
midwife said unto her, Fear not ; for now thou shalt have another 
son. 

18 And it came to pass, as her soul was departing (for she 
died), that she called his name Ben-oni:* but his father called him 
Benjamin. f 

19 And Rachel died, and was buried in the way to Ephrath (the 
same is Beth-lehem). 

20 And Jacob set up a pillar upon her grave ; the same is the 
Pillar of Rachel's grave unto this day. 

*That is j The son of my sorrow. \Tfiat is, The son of the right hand. 

After dwelling some years, as we suppose, in Bethel, Jacob 
broke up camp, traveling toward the south. Bethel was situated 
12 miles to the north of Jerusalem, and Bethlehem 6 miles to 
the south; — 18 miles of tragic interest for Jacob and his be- 
loved Rachel. It seems strange that after so long a residence 
in Bethel, Jacob should depart for the south at a time so critical 
for his wife; but so it was, and it may well have been that this 
lack of foresight contributed in part to so distressing a death. 
Thus it is that we walk as blind men in this life, and many 



408 GENESIS 

are those of us who have to deplore too late some mistake, or 
want of foresight, the consequences of which have been ir- 
reparable. "Ephrath" or "Ephratah" seems to have been the 
old name of Bethlehem, which once bears the two names to- 
gether, — "Bethlehem Ephratah." Mic. 5: 2. Near to that place, 
on the way there, and lacking but a little to arrive, Rachel gave 
birth to a son, and so hard was her labor, that in giving to 
her husband her second son, she herself gave up her life. Be- 
fore she died she named the new-born one "Ben-oni" (—Son 
of my sorrow) ; a name which his father could not endure; 
and so he named him "Benjamin"— Son of the right hand. With 
good cause, Jacob, although his heart was lacerated with grief, 
would not consent that the child should bear a name of sadness 
such as might influence his character and destiny; and instead 
of that name of anguish, he gave him another of joy; although 
for himself the birth of the child was the burial of the hopes and 
the joy of his life. 

This is the first notice we have in the Bible of the extreme 
form of that curse which fell on the woman in the day that 
she ate the forbidden fruit (ch. 3:16); but many (alas, how 
many!) are those who have given up their life on giving being 
to their "Ben-oni," or have had them buried with them in 
their own grave! Another new pillar, or funereal monument 
Jacob raised up to mark the spot where he laid to rest the 
mortal remains of that beautiful woman who had been the 
mistress of his life, and whose sorrowful death may well have 
imparted to him that air of sadness which thenceforward char- 
acterizes the life of this patriarch, to whose lot a super- 
abundance of evils had been appointed: "Few and evil have 
the days of the years of my life been!" Ch. 47: 9. Until the days 
of Moses, and until the times of Samuel and Saul (1 Sam. 10: 2) 
did that monument of mortal anguish remain there; and it 
appeals so deeply to the most sacred feelings of the heart, that 
the Mohammedans still mark the site with a monument of 
solid masonry, such as will endure until the trumpet of the 
Archangel awakens this mother of Israel, in the last day. 

35: 21, 22. more calamities for jacob. (1729 b. c.) 

21 And Israel journeyed, and spread his tent beyond the tower of 
Eder. 

22 And it came to pass, while Israel dwelt in that land, that 
Reuben went and lay with Bilhah his father's concubine : and Israel 
heard of it. 

From Bethlehem it was but a short distance to Mamre or 
Hebron — some 15 miles. But in this brief interval Jacob had 



CHAPTER 35: 23—26 409 

occasion to encamp "beyond the tower of Eder" (="Tower of 
the flock"); — the first tower of which we have any mention 
in the Bible; which Jerome, in the 4th century of the Christian 
Era, located about 1000 paces from Bethlehem; — an opinion 
which we need not accept. 

"And while he dwelt in that country," so near to his father's 
home, his eldest son, Reuben, defiled the bed of his father; a 
horrible crime, in which the first-born son and the concubine 
of Jacob, the hand-maid of Rachel, took part. The death of 
his beloved Rachel was a distress not so hard to bear as this 
act of incest, on which the Bible makes this single comment, 
"And Israel heard of it;" although the Hebrew text indicates 
the fact with a blank, or hiatus; as if it were better to meditate 
on the case than to speak of it. It does not appear that Reuben 
was punished for this sin, which afterwards, by the law of 
Moses was to be punished by the death of both parties, (Lev. 
20: 11); but on account of it Reuben lost his birthright; and in 
the blessing of his sons at the time of his death, Jacob spoke 
thus of him: 

"Reuben, thou art my first-born, 

my might, and the beginning of my strength; 

the pre-eminence of dignity, and the pre-eminence of 
power! 

Boiling over as water, thou shalt not have the pre-emi- 
nence; 

because thou wentest up to thy father's bed; 

then defiledst thou it. He went up to my couch!" 

Ch. 49: 3, 4. 

The words "then defiledst thou (it)" may with equal pro- 
priety be translated "then thou madest (thyself) vile"; and one 
sense is as good and as suitable as the other. 

35: 23 — 26. the entire list of the sons op jacob. 

Now the sons of Jacob were twelve : 

23 the sons of Leah ; Reuben, Jacob's first-born, and Simeon, 
and Levi, and Judah, and Issachar, and Zebulun ; 

24 the sons of Rachel : Joseph and Benjamin ; 

25 and the sons of Bilhah, Rachel's handmaid: Dan and 
Naphtali ; 

26 and the sons of Zilpah, Leah's handmaid : Gad and Asher : 
these are the sons of Jacob, that were born to him in Paddan-aram. 

All these, with the exception of Benjamin, were born in 
Padan-aram. It is entirely conformable with Hebrew usage, 
speaking of them as a whole, to say they were born in Padan- 
aram, without making account of the exception just related, 



410 GENESIS 

seven verses before, telling how Benjamin was born, and Rachel 
died at the same time, near to Bethlehem. And it is a good 
illustration of many of the alleged errors and contradictions of 
the Bible. 

35: 27 — 29. jacob at last comes to his father in mamee; 
where, thirteen years afterwards, isaac died and was buried. 
(1729 to 1716 b. c.) 

27 And Jacob came unto Isaac his father to Mamre, to Kiri- 
ath-arba (the same is Hebron), where Abraham and Isaac sojourned. 

28 And the days of Isaac were a hundred and fourscore years. 

29 And Isaac gave up the ghost and died, and was gathered unto 
his people, old and full of days : and Esau and Jacob his sons 
buried him. 

According to the common chronology, given in our Bibles, 
Jacob came to his father in Mamre ten years after leaving 
Haran, or Padan-aram, in the same year (1729 B. C.) in which 
Joseph was sold into Egypt, when 17 years of age. But if 
Joseph was six years old when his father left Haran (ch. 
30: 25; 31: 41), and ten years had elapsed since that time, 
he must have lived one year with his grandfather Isaac, before 
he was sold. Jacob was, at that time, 105 years old, and died 
in Egypt 42 years after, when 147 years old. Isaac, who was 
60 years old when Esau and Jacob were born, would be then 
165; and dying at 180, he must have lived 15 years after the 
return of Jacob, with his encampment, to his father's house; 
so that between vrs. 27 and 28 of this paragraph there intervenes 
a space of 13 to 15 years. It is important for the reader to 
bear in mind how thorny and difficult is the chronology of 
the Bible; nor is this to be thought strange in a history so 
extremely abbreviated, where we leap, as in this case, fifteen 
years in going from one verse to another, without any notice 
given of the lapse of time. We have already called attention 
to the fact that chronology, which is so essential a matter in 
all modern history, was held to be of comparatively little 
importance in the ancient time, whether in the Bible, or in the 
classical histories of the Greeks and Romans. 

But it is not to be supposed that during those ten years of 
delay on Jacob's part, he did not see his father, either in 
Beersheba, where he left him, or in Mamre, where at last 
he found him (vr. 27) ; so that when it is said in this verse 
that "Jacob came unto his father in Mamre," what is intended to 
be said is that he then came with all his encampment. The inter- 
esting fact, on which we have already commented (vr. 8), that 
Deborah, Rebekah's nurse, died in Bethel, in the encampment 



CHAPTER 35: 27—29 411 

of Jacob, is proof positive that before this she had removed 
there from the encampment of Isaac; which shows with how 
much facility, and more or less frequency, they passed from 
one encampment to the other — a distance of 32 miles, at most; 
and this of itself furnishes us with sufficient evidence that 
Jacob would be one of those who thus passed, not only to see his 
father, but for the purpose of looking after the important inter- 
ests which he and Esau had in common under his hand. Not- 
withstanding this, the fact that Esau had withdrawn from the 
neighborhood of his aged and blind father, even before Jacob had 
left Laban, and that Deborah did the same thing, as soon as 
Jacob returned to Canaan, in conjunction with the circumstance 
that Jacob himself delayed ten years in returning to his father's 
house, without any notice of his meeting with him, either before 
or after his arrival at Mamre, gives us an almost absolute cer- 
tainty that something had happened to him; and it is most 
probable that the poor old man was in his dotage, blind already 
for 30 years, and having still from 13 to 15 years to walk in 
darkness! Since the time that Isaac and Rebekah sent Jacob 
to Padan-aram, 30 years before, when he himself and all the 
family believed that he was near to death's door (ch. 27: 1, 2, 
41), we have no notice whatever of the old blind man; nor any 
until his death, 15 years later. It seems probable that he passed 
these 45 years sickly and infirm, and perhaps querulous, as well 
as blind: — after what had happened, his home could not have 
been a happy one; and in his last 25 years, or ever since Jacob 
forsook the house of Laban to return home, he was probably 
weak-minded, or in his dotage, besides. We recall with pain the 
clumsy artifice with which his own wife, Rebekah, expected to de- 
ceive him, in the matter of "the blessing," even before Jacob's 
flight to Padan-aram, and succeeded only too well. What a sad 
old age was that of Isaac! When we see old people sickly and 
infirm, or obliged for long months or years to keep their bed, 
to whom (and to their attendants as well) life itself seems a 
useless burden, it will be convenient for us to bring to mind the 
infirm and blind old man in Beersheba and Mamre. 

But at last he laid down his burden: he died, "and his sons 
Esau and Jacob buried him." So the reconciliation of the two 
brothers must have been complete and permanent; thanks to the 
blessing with which the Angel blessed Jacob on that memorable 
night in Penuel. Ch. 32: 29. Ch. 36: 6—8 seems to give us to 
understand that either before the death of his father, or after- 
wards (or perhaps both the one and the other), Esau and Jacob 
lived together in the land of Canaan, taking joint care of their 



412 GENESIS 

great cattle interests; that is to say, of their own individually, 
increased by those that had been in the care of their father; and 
that after this, they separated in peace and harmony, Esau re- 
turning again to the mountain country of Seir, to the south and 
S. E. of the Salt or Dead Sea, and Jacob remaining in the land 
of Canaan; the vast multitude of their cattle not permitting them 
to live longer together. 

We have already observed, with respect to the death of Abra- 
ham (see ch. 25: 8 p. 296), that the words "he gave up the ghost, 
and died, and was gathered to his peoples" are an indubitable 
indication of the popular belief in the continued existence of men 
after they were dead. It says nothing of their individual condi- 
tion, for the same phrase, or others to the same purpose, are used 
indifferently of the good and the bad; but it does reveal the popu- 
lar belief that death did not interrupt their personal existence. 
It is equivalent to "he breathed his last breath, and (conse- 
quently) he died, and something more"; and this something more 
is, that after he was dead he was gathered to the company of his 
peoples"; a singular phrase, and hard to explain; but in spite of 
this, we feel its force. The corresponding phrase, "gathered to 
their fathers," seems to represent the popular idea that the 
fathers, having finished their course, waited yonder the coming 
of their children also, who when they died were gathered to the 
congregation of the departed. Of the brute animals it would be 
an absurdity to say that "they gave up the ghost, and died, and 
were gathered to their fathers." "With this simple demonstration 
we refute the allegation of some infidels and semi-infidels that 
the books of Moses bear no testimony whatever to a future state 
of existence. Compare the exclamation of the wicked Balaam, in 
Num. 23: 10: "Let me die the death of the righteous, and let my 
last end be like his!" Pray, what did Balaam mean, if there was 
no hereafter for the righteous? The Hebrew means literally, 
"let my hereafter be like his." 



CHAPTER XXXVI. 

VBS. 1 — 8. MEMOIRS OF ESAU. (1796 to 1715 B. C.) 

1 Now these are the generations of Esau (the same is Edom). 

2 Esau took his wives of the daughters of Canaan : Adah the 
daughter of Elon the Hittite, and Oholibamah the daughter of 
Anah, the daughter of Zibeon the Hivite, 

3 and Basemath Ishmnel's daughter, sister of Nebaioth. 

4 And Adah bare to Esau Eliphaz; and Basemath bare Reuel ; 



CHAPTER 36: 1—8 413 

5 and Oholibamah bare Jeush, and Jalam, and Korah : these 
are the sons of Esau, that were born unto him in the land of 
Canaan. 

6 And Esau took his wives, and his sons, and his daughters, and 
all the souls of his house, and his cattle, and all his beasts, and all 
his possessions, which he had gathered in the land of Canaan; and 
went into a land away from his brother Jacob. 

7 For their substance was too great for them to dwell together; 
and the land of their sojournings could not bear them because of 
their cattle. 

8 And Esau dwelt in mount Seir : Esau is Edom. 

The natural relations which existed between Jacob and Esau, 
and the enmity which until the end — "a perpetual enmity," Ezek. 
35: 5 — subsisted between the Edomites and the people of Israel, 
seem to have furnished the motive for the introduction of these 
memoirs of Esau here. 

In ch. 26: 34, the two first wives of Esau are called "Hittites," 
here we are told that they were "of the daughters of Canaan," 
and in vr. 3 we are particularly told that the second one was 
"the daughter of Zibeon the Hivite"; and farther on we are told 
that this Zibeon (because it could not be any other), was "the 
son of Seir the Horite." Vr. 20. This example is very interest- 
ing, because it manifests how amid that mixture of races which 
occupied so reduced a territory, where in the days of Joshua there 
were from seven to ten "nations," one could at the same time 
be a Hittite, a Hivite, a Horite and a Canaanite. It is important 
to keep this fact in mind. In chapter 28: 1 those Hittite women 
are in fact called Canaanites — "daughters of Canaan." An- 
other circumstance of still greater difficulty is found in the fact 
that the names of those two wives of Esau, and even of the third, 
the daughter of Ishmael, whom Esau married many years later, 
are different from those we find in ch. 26: 34 and 28: 9. The diffi- 
culty is more apparent than real; for it is a well recognized fact 
that in Bible times the same person frequently bore several dif- 
ferent names. The author of the first Gospel is called "Levi" by 
Mark and Luke, and "Matthew" by himself (Mark 2: 14; Luke 
5: 27; Matt. 9: 9); and Judas, the brother of James, is likewise 
called "Lebbeus" and "Thaddeus." And the wife of Abraham 
has given us enough to do, as we have seen, with one of the three 
names which she bore — "Iscah," "Sarai," and "Sarah." See com- 
ments on ch. 11: 29. 

Comparing vrs. 2 and 14 with vrs. 18, 24, 25, 29, it appears evi- 
dent that "Anah, the daughter of Zibeon the Hivite" is an error 
of the copyist, and it ought to be "son" (and so some ancient au- 
thorities have it) ; for the said Anah is evidently a man and not 
a woman. See comment on vrs. 29 and 30. 

It is to be noted that Esau did not have by his three wives 



414 GENESIS 

more than five sons; a paucity which we observe not only in him 
but in many others besides, and which manifests that the ancients 
were not as prolific as we commonly suppose. It is nevertheless 
to be borne in mind that it was not the custom of the ancient 
Hebrews to mention the daughters in the list of sons; for it is 
said in vr. 6 that "Esau took his wives, and his sons, and his 
daughters (of whom no mention whatever had been made), and 
went to another land." Esau therefore took his three wives and 
his • five sons, with his daughters of indeterminate number, and 
went into another country (which was "the land of Seir" to the 
south and S. E. of the Salt (or Dead) Sea, on account of his 
brother Jacob; with entire omission of his residence there be- 
fore the return of Jacob from Padan-aram (ch. 32: 3) and his 
second residence in Canaan, where all his children were born. 
Vr. 5. The mention of the immediate motive for his withdraw- 
ing to the mountain country of Seir, excludes the idea that this 
withdrawal took place previous to the return of Jacob; and con- 
firms the idea that, as is frequent in the Scriptures, his two 
goings to Seir are treated of compendiously as one, in order to 
economize time and space. 

Four times it is repeated in different forms in this chapter that 
"Esau is Edom"; a circumstance which for some cause or other 
is repeated to us from the time of his birth. Ch. 25: 25, 30. The 
names "Esau" and "Edom" both of them signify "red," the 
which Esau, or Edom, was "the father of the Edomites" {HeJ). 
Edom). 

36: 9—14. THE NAMES OF THE SONS OF ESAU ARE REPEATED, AND 
THOSE OF HIS GRANDSONS, BORN IN SEIR, ALL OF WHOM CAME TO 
BE HEADS OF TRD3ES, OR CLANS. 

9 And these are the generations of Esau the father of the Edom- 
ites in mount Seir : 

10 these are the names of Esau's sons : Eliphaz the son of Adah 
the wife of Esau, Reuel the son of Basemath the wife of Esau. 

11 And the sons of Eliphaz were Teman, Omar, Zepho, and 
Gatam, and Kenaz. 

12 And Timma was concubine to Eliphaz Esau's son; and she 
bare to Eliphaz Amalek : these are the sons of Adah, Esau's wife. 

13 And these are the sons of Reuel : Nahath, and Zerah, Sham- 
mah, and Mizzah : these were the sons of Basemath, Esau's wife. 

14 And these were the sons of Oholibamah the daughter of 
Anah, the daughter of Zibeon, Esau's wife: and she bare to Esau 
Jeush, and Jalam, and Korah. 

Eliphaz the first-born of Esau had five sons by his wife, and one 
by his concubine — the famous Amalek; so that the mention of 
"the country of the Amalekites" previously to this, in ch. 14: 7, 
refers to the territory which they at a later date had in possession, 



CHAPTER 36: 15—19 415 

Reuel, his second, had four sons, grandsons of Esau like the six 
just named, and heads of clans or tribes in Edom. As we have 
already seen (ch. 28: 6 — 9), Esau married a daughter of Ish- 
mael, many years after his marriages with his other two 
wives; so that the three sons that he had by her came to be 
heads of clans or tribes, together with his grandsons, descended 
from those first two Hittite wives; and so it is probable that 
those thirteen chieftains were more or less of the same age; 
ten grandchildren of Esau, and three sons of his own that were 
born of his younger wife. 

36: 15 — 19. THE CHIEFS OF THE HOUSE OF ESAU. 

15 These are the chiefs of the sons of Esau : the sons of Eliphaz 
the first-born of Esau : chief Teman, chief Omar, chief Zepho, chief 
Kenaz, 

16 chief Korah, chief Gatam, chief Amalek : these are the 
chiefs that came of Eliphaz in the land of Edom ; these are the sons 
of Adah. 

17 And these are the sons of Reuel, Esau's son : chief Nahath, 
chief Zerah, chief Shammah, chief Mizzah : these are the chiefs that 
came of Reuel in the land of Edom ; these are the sons of Base- 
math, Esau's wife. 

18 And these are the sons of Oholibamah,* Esau's wife: chief 
Jeush, chief Jalam, chief Korah : these are the chiefs that came of 
Oholibamah the daughter of Anah, Esau's wife. 

19 These are the sons of Esau, and these are their chiefs : the 
same is Edom. 

A. V. and M. 8. Y., Aholibamah. 

The six sons of Eliphaz already mentioned came to be the 
heads of tribes, clans or chieftaincies, to whom in vr. 16 is 
added another, one Korah, not mentioned in the previous list, 
and uncle of the Korah (son of Aholibamah) mentioned in vr. 
18; making fourteen chieftains descended from Esau, who came 
to he heads of clans or tribes in the land of Edom. Certainly 
very great was the ascendency which the valiant and worldly 
Esau had acquired in the land of his adoption, for his sons, 
of the first and second generations, to become chiefs* or princes 
in that land, occupied still by the descendants of Seir the 
Horite. It is clear from Deut. 2: 22 that this was not a 
pacific conquest, but was at least in part effected by force of 
arms; and nevertheless the memoirs of Seir the Horite, which 
we have in vrs. 20 — 30, furnish us with data for believing 
that relations of friendship and kinship subsisted between Esau 
and at least a part of the Horites; and that at last the two 
peoples were united so as to become one only, called the chil- 

*The translation "dukes" which figures so largely and so inopportunely 
In the Reina-Valera, and in the A. V. & R. V. of this chapter, has been 
wisely changed by the American revisers into "chiefs," as is seen in the 
Scripture text. — Tr. 



416 GENESIS 

dren of Edom; although their land continued to be called the 
land, or mountain country of Seir. 

36: 20 — 28. memoirs of seie, the predecessor of esau in the 
land of edom. 

20 These are the sons of Seir the Horite, the inhabitants of the 
land : Lotan and Shobal and Zibeon and Anah, 

21 and Dishon and Ezer and Dishan : these are the chiefs that 
came of the Horites, the children of Seir in the land of Edom. 

22 And the children of Lotan were Hori and Heman; and Lotan's 
sister was Timna. 

23 And these are the children of Shobal : Alvan and Manahath 
and Ebal, Shepho and Onam. 

24 And these are the children of Zibeon : Aiah and Anah ; this 
is Anah who found the hot springs* in the wilderness, as he fed the 
asses of Zibeon his father. 

25 And these are the children of Anah : Dishon and Oholibamah 
the daughter of Anah. 

26 And these are the children of Dishon: Hemdan and Eshban 
and Ithran and Cheran. 

27 These are the children of Ezer: Bilhan and Zaavan and 
Akan. 

28 These are the children of Disdain: Uz and Aran. 

*A. V. and M. 8. F., mules. 

Of this notable man who gave name to the country of Edom, 
a name which it never lost, we only know that he was the 
father of the Horites, the primitive inhabitants of that country, 
even before the calling of Abraham. See ch. 14: 6. The name 
"Horite" seems to indicate that they were cave-dwellers (Heb. 
hor = cave, pi. horim) ; of which caves there still remain a 
vast number cut in the cliffs of sand-stone, and in the moun- 
tains of Edom; and notably the famous city of "Sela," "Selah" 
or "Petra." 2 Kings 14: 7; Obad. vrs. 2, 3. The relations of 
intimate kinship that were formed between Esau and some of 
the family of Seir, by his marriage with Aholibamah, great- 
granddaughter of Seir, and by means of Timna, who was the 
concubine of Eliphaz, and mother of Amalek (vr. 12), seem 
to have been the cause of the insertion of these memoirs here, 
as being part of the family history of Esau. 

Among the sons of Dishan (vr. 28), the seventh son of Seir, 
we meet with Uz as his first-born; and it would seem that he 
is the same who gave name to "the land of Uz," which was the 
native country of the patriarch Job (Job 1:1). This seems 
more probable than to refer the name to Uz the son of Aram 
(Gen. 10: 23) the only other of the name, who was a Syrian; 
while Job was an Arabian, and his friend Eliphaz the Tem- 
anite was of "the country of the Temanites," mentioned in 
vr. 34. 

There has been much dispute with regard to the discovery, 



CHAPTER 36: 20—28 417 

or the find, which Anah, the father of Aholibamah, made in the 
desert, "when he was feeding the asses of Zibeon his father" 
(vr. 24), which some would translate "hot springs," as the 
Latin Vulgate has it, and the R. V. of the English Bible, given 
above. The word occurs but this once in the Hebrew Bible, 
and hence the difficulty of determining its meaning. Others 
would understand that the word means "giants." But "hot 
springs" were not a thing so extraordinary in a volcanic country, 
like that around the Dead Sea, that it should deserve such 
mention; nor were the "giants" either, where there had formerly 
been several races of gigantic stature. Deut. 2: 10 — 12 and 
20: 23. For my own part, I believe that the ordinary opinion 
of the Jewish commentators is the correct one, and that the 
Common Version of the English Bible and the Modern Span- 
ish Version give the true sense, translating it "mules" ; al- 
though the ordinary Hebrew word for mules is different. The 
Jewish doctors say that this Anah (a pagan Horite) discov- 
ered the procreation of mules, through a prurient curiosity to 
mix the different races of animals — a very frequent thing among 
the ancient pagans, as the impure and corrupting stories of 
the Greek and Roman mythologies attest. It is incorrect to 
allege, in opposition to this (as does Bush), that the Heb. word 
natsa (=to find) does not have the sense of discover; for it is 
precisely the word which Samson used when he said: 

"If ye had not plowed with my heifer, 
Ye would not have found out (Heb. "found") my riddle." 

Judg. 15: 18. 

The Reina-Valera Version, of the year 1602, says that he 
"invented mules"; and such an invention, or discovery, was well 
worthy of commemoration; for the result of this mixture of the 
ass and the horse has been most useful in all the world, and it is 
still found among all nations; though such mixture of different 
animal races is expressly prohibited in the Mosaic law (Lev. 
19: 19), and only by the art and contrivance of men has the 
ass been depraved so as to sin thus against the instincts of its 
own nature. This I take it was the "invention" of Anah, the 
son of Zibeon the Horite. Mules were used in Israel itself 
(whether bred there, or imported from the nations around), be- 
fore horses were allowed even for the purposes of war. 2 Sam. 
13: 29; 18: 9; 1 Kings 1: 33. Comp. Josh. 11: 6, 9; 2 Sam. 8: 4. 



4i8 GENESIS 

36: 29, 30. the hoeite chiefs, who preceded those of the eace 

OF ESAU. 

29 These are the chiefs that came of the Horites : chief Lotan, 
chief Shobal, chief Zibeon, chief Anah, 

30 chief Dishon, chief Ezer, chief Dishan: these are the chiefs 
that came of the Horites, according to their chiefs in the land of 
Seir. 

It is evident that "Anah" of vr. 20 was the name of a man 
and not of a woman, the uncle of the Anah of vr. 24, who was 
the father of Aholibamah, the second wife of Esau; since in 
vr. 29 he figures as a chieftain, just as Zibeon, his brother, and 
he is clearly to be distinguished from the Anah who discovered 
the mules, vr. 24. So that there were two chieftains of the 
name of Anah, uncle and nephew, just as in vrs. 16 and 18 
we have two chieftains named "Korah," who were half brothers. 
Since then it is evident that Aholibamah, the wife of Esau, 
was the daughter of one Anah and the niece of another; and 
since her father Anah was the son of Zibeon, it seems clearly 
impossible that she should be at the same time daughter of a 
woman named Anah, who was "daughter of Zibeon the Hivite." 
It appears, therefore, certain that the "Anah" of vrs. 2 and 
14 was the name of a man rather than a woman; and that 
the word "daughter of Zibeon" is an error of the copyist, and 
should read "son" — unless we have recourse to a supposition 
at which the mind revolts. Rabbi David Kimchi, however, as 
quoted by Adam Clarke, makes the still more revolting state- 
ment that this Anah, so much addicted to impure mixtures, was 
himself the offspring of one, being both the son and the brother 
of Zibeon. Zibeon, so far as I can follow the tangled thread 
of this chapter, is called a Hivite in vr. 2, and a Horite in vrs. 
20 and 29. See comments on vr. 2. It is important for us to 
bear always in mind the unspeakable abominations that were 
common among those pagan peoples. See Lev. 18: 24 — 28; Deut. 
18: 25, 27. 

36: 31 — 39. the kings who reigned in edom before there were 
kings of the children of israel. 

31 And these are the kings that reigned in the land of Edom, 
before there reigned any king over the children of Israel. 

32 And Bela the son of Beor reigned in Edom ; and the name 
of his city was Dinhabah. 

33 And Bela died, and Jobab the son of Zerah of Bozrah reigned 
in his stead. 

34 And Jobab died, and Husham of the land of the Temanites 
reigned in his stead. 

35 And Husham died, and Hadad the son of Bedad, who smote 



CHAPTER 36: 31—39 419 

Midian in the field of Moab, reigned in his stead : and the name of 
his city was Avith. 

36 And Hadad died, and Samlah of Masrekah reigned in his 
stead. 

37 And Samlah died, and Shaul of Rehoboth by the River reigned 
in his stead. 

38 And Shaul died, and Baal-hanan the son of Achbor reigned in 
his stead. 

39 And Baal-hanan the son of Achbor died and Hadar reigned in 
his stead : and the name of his city was Pau ; and his wife's name 
was Mehetabel, the daughter of Hatred, the daughter of Me-zahab. 

The first king of the children of Israel was Saul, who began 
to reign about 350 years after Moses; so that it is clear that 
this paragraph was added by some copyist or editor, who lived 
several centuries after Moses. The entire paragraph, with a 
few variations, is found in 1 Chron. 1: 43 — 50; and some have 
believed that from there it was taken and added to this chapter. 
The books of the Chronicles bear evident traces of having been 
composed, or at least edited, after the Babylonish, captivity; 
see 2 Chron. 36: 22 and 1 Chron. 3: 19, where the list of the 
descendants of David is carried several generations beyond 
Zerubbabel; and it seems much more probable that 1 Chron. 1: 
35 — 54 was taken from here, according as it stood in the days 
of Saul, or of David (or even later), after this paragraph had 
been added. 

The last of the kings mentioned presents us with a circum- 
stance of some interest, in the name of the grandmother of 
his wife, which was "Me-zahab" (= "Waters of gold," vr. 39), 
a name which most likely was given her on account of the 
abundance of her beautiful golden hair; an object of pride for 
her, and of admiration and envy for her companions. Such 
is human vanity, and so it ends! Some particular reason 
there must have been, and of interest to the first readers of 
the book, for giving in this place the names of these three 
women; that being contrary to ordinary Hebrew usage. Esau 
likewise had red hair (ch. 25: 25) and David also, or of auburn 
color (1 Sam. 16: 12); adjectives which are one and the same 
in the Hebrew text. 

From this chapter it is evident that the government of Edom, 
both under the house of Seir and under that of Esau, was by 
captaincies, or clans (of which we have seven of the race of 
Seir, and fourteen of that of Esau), and that afterwards, with 
the increase of population and riches, there arose a dynasty of 
kings, of whom eight individuals are given in the text, as hav- 
ing reigned before there was a king in Israel. "When Israel 
went out of Egypt, this change had already taken place in 
Edom; although the two institutions existed together. For we 



420 GENESIS 

have mention of the "chiefs (A. V. 'dukes') of Edom" in the 
triumphal song of Moses, Ex. 15: 15; and in Num. 20: 14, we 
find that Moses sent messengers to the king of Edom, asking 
his permission for Israel to pass through his territory. 

36: 40 — 43. another and a different list of the chiefs of edom. 

40 And these are the names of the chiefs that came of Esau, 
according to their families, after their places, by their names : chief 
Timna, chief Alvah, chief Jetheth, 

41 chief Oholibamah, chief Elah, chief Pinon, 

42 chief Kenaz, chief Teman, chief Mibzar, 

43 chief Magdiel, chief Iram : these are the chiefs of Edom, accord- 
ing to their habitations in the land of their possession. This is 
Esau, the father of the Edomites. 

All this chapter has its difficulties, which we do not know 
how to resolve satisfactorily (hut we do not on that account 
believe that it has no place in a divinely inspired record) ; and 
in several places the narrative seems to be disjointed; so that 
it will not be difficult to suppose, that as vrs. 31 — 39 are un- 
doubtedly an addition by copyists or editors, long after the days 
of Moses, other parts also may be in the same case. And 
these last four verses are not the least difficult part of the 
chapter. This list of the chiefs of Edom, which comes in after 
the list of the kings of Edom, is entirely different from that 
given in vrs. 15 — 19. Only two of the eleven names (Kenaz 
and Teman), are identical with those of the other list, which 
number fourteen; while two of them bear the names of women; 
Aholibamah and Timna; although like "Anah" and "Anah," of 
the preceding list, it may be that the names were used of 
both sexes alike. I suppose that they are two different lists, 
and have reference to different persons and times; but I 
cannot ascertain any motive or reason for introducing them 
here. The chapter ends as it began, repeating for the fourth 
time that "Esau is the father of Edom" or of "the Edomites." 
The writer must have had some special purpose in view, for 
this repetition, which it is not given to us to find out. 



CHAPTER XXXVII. 

VRS. 1 4. WE BEGIN AGAIN THE INTERRUPTED HISTORY OF JACOB, 

WITH MEMOIRS OF HIM AND OF HIS SON JOSEPH. (1729 B. C.) 

1 And Jacob dwelt in the land of his father's sojournings, in the 
land of Canaan. 

2 These are the generations of Jacob. Joseph, being sevent^on 
years old, was feeding the flock with his brethren; and he was a 



CHAPTER 37: 1—4 421 

lad with the sons of Bilhah, and with the sons of Zilpah, his father's 
wives : and Joseph brought the evil report of them unto their father. 

3 Now Israel loved Joseph more than all his children, because 
he was the son of his old age : and he made him a coat of many 
colors.* 

4 And his brethren saw that their father loved him more than 
all his brethren ; and they hated him, and could not speak peaceably 
unto him. 

*Or, a long garment with sleeves. 

Isaac having died, and Esau having removed to the land of 
Seir, Jacob continued to dwell in the land of the sojournings of 
his fathers, the land of Canaan, which God had before promised 
to Abraham and his posterity. Verse 43 of the preceding 
chapter says that the children of Esau dwelt "in the land of 
their possession" ; meanwhile for Jacob and his descendants, 
the same as for their fathers, the land of promise "in which they 
dwelt as strangers," was to them but "the land of their so- 
journings" On this circumstance the apostle fixes -attention, in 
Heb. 11: 9 — 16, to extol the faith which these holy patriarchs 
had in God, and the heavenly nature of their hope; constituting 
them types of the people of God, who still wait for "the city 
that hath the foundations" (Rev. 21: 14, 19, etc.), "whose 
builder and maker is God." Heb. 11: 10. 

The word "generations," in vr. 2, has undeniably the sense 
of memoirs or family history; for of "generation" and "genera- 
tions" in the ordinary sense of the word, nothing whatever is 
said. These memoirs have to do with the history of Joseph; 
and there begins at this point a most interesting and in some 
respects one of the most important histories of the Old Testament. 
We see here the preliminary steps which led to the abandonment 
of pastoral life by the children of Abraham, their entrance on a 
truly national life, and their preparation for those high destinies 
to which God had called them as his chosen people; in order 
that they might be to him a "kingdom of priests, a holy nation" 
(Ex. 19: 5, 6), and a fruitful source of blessing to the world. 

Three things are very evident to us, although they were not 
so to them: 1st. That it would be morally impossible, there 
in the land of Canaan, for the children of Israel to increase until 
they were sufficiently numerous to take possession of the land 
which God destined for them; 2nd. That even though the 
Canaanites were exterminated and destroyed from before them 
by pestilence or by war, a nation of shepherds did not possess 
the qualifications to perform that high mission to which God 
had called them; it was necessary to educate them for their 
high vocation; 3rd. Esau had already withdrawn to the land 
of Seir, separating himself from Jacob, for the reason that there 



422 GENESIS 

was not room enough for them to dwell together, with their 
numerous flocks and herds. Ch. 36: 7. It was therefore neces- 
sary to do something to remedy this difficulty, which was always 
an increasing one; otherwise, as there had been strife between 
the herdsmen of Abraham and those of Lot, so there would 
necessarily be between the Canaanites who were filling up the 
country, very sparsely peopled in the days of Abraham (ch. 13: 
6, 9), and the children of Israel, who went on increasing and 
multiplying, as "strangers and sojourners" in the midst of them. 
This chapter therefore gives us the first scene in that great 
drama of divine providence, which gave effect to the designs of 
God, with a view to fulfilling the promises sworn to Abraham, 
and operating on a wider scale for the redemption of the world, 
beginning with one family and people chosen out of the other 
nations. 

We see now the flocks and herds of Jacob divided into different 
portions, and Joseph as the companion of the sons of the servant- 
wives of his father, Bilhah and Zilpah; a clear indication that 
the rivalry which had existed between the two wives of Jacob, 
was continued in their respective families. Joseph would 
naturally prefer to be with the sons of the two maid-servants 
rather than with the sons of his aunt. 

The language of vr. 2 is singular and admits of different 
senses. It is said that "Joseph was feeding the flock with his 
brethren," and then it is added (according to the R. V.), "that 
he was a lad with the sons of Bilhah," etc. Others understand 
that the word "boy" or "lad" is used, as it frequently is in 
both the Old and the New Testaments, for a man-servant; which 
is simply incredible, considering the preference which his father 
always gave to him. The translation given in the Modern 
Spanish Version ("he as a boy, was with the sons of Bilhah," 
etc.), is good, and suggests the idea that he was a mere boy, and 
kept the company of his half-brothers, the sons of the maid- 
servants of Leah and Rachel. 

It is to be feared that Joseph, however good may have been 
his moral and religious character, had as yet all the inexperi- 
ence of a boy bred at home, and did not deport himself with the 
wisdom and tact demanded by the difficult circumstances in 
which he found himself placed. His four brothers with whom 
he was, were bad men; and Joseph reported their bad conduct 
to his father. It may be that it was his duty to do so; but 
to judge by his lack of good sense in the matter of his dreams, 
we may suppose that in this case also, fulfilling the most dif- 
ficult part of his duty, he did not proceed with that degree of 



CHAPTER 37: 1—4 423 

prudence and tact which was to be desired, but rather with the 
inexperience of a mere home-bred boy of seventeen years. It 
would seem that all his older brothers were bad men; and the 
fact that he was righteous and they were wicked, was of itself 
sufficient reason why they should regard him with aversion; 
but when to this he added the character of an informer, they 
would come to regard him as a spy upon their actions, and his 
presence among them would become insupportable. To make 
matters worse, Jacob too plainly manifested his partiality for 
the elder son of his beloved Rachel, of whom he was the living 
image (or at least the extraordinary beauty of the mother and 
that of the son are represented to us in the identical words in 
Hebrew, which occur nowhere else, ch. 29 : 17 and 39 : 6 ) ; and 
not only so, but he made him a robe of a special kind which 
published abroad the greater love and confidence which his father 
cherished toward him. This of itself would have been sufficient, 
without accepting the translation and interpretation which some 
wish to give to vr. 2, to the effect that his father had constituted 
him the chief, the "pastor" or "shepherd" of his brethren, on 
account of the greater confidence that he had in him; he being 
but a mere boy. But it seems impossible that the partiality of 
Jacob should reach to such a pitch of folly. In any case, his 
older brethren hated him all the more for the affection which 
his father manifested towards him; to such a degree that they 
could not speak peaceably with him. 

With regard to the tunic, coat or robe, which served him as 
an insignia of distinction, we have no certain knowledge. The 
same word is used in 2 Sam. 13: 18, with reference to the robe 
of Tamar, the sister of Absalom, whom Amnon violated; the 
writer adding that it was a robe which the virgin daughters of 
the king were accustomed to wear. The Greek Version of the 
LXX and the Latin Vulgate say a tunic or coat "of many 
colors," as it is given also in our English Bibles. The Hebrew 
text says a tunic or coat "of palms of the hand" (or "of soles 
of the foot") ; which some understand to mean a tunic made 
of pieces of cloth of the size of the hand; supposed to be of dif- 
ferent colors. Gesenius interprets the phrase (for it cannot be 
translated) as describing a robe or garment reaching to the palms 
of his hands and the soles of his feet; or, in other words, "a 
long garment with sleeves"; as found in the note to the Bible 
text; and this, in the opinion of the learned, is the proper 
meaning of the phrase. It was a long robe, different from the 
ordinary dress of the Orientals, whether men or women. So it 
was that when Joseph, dressed like a prince, appeared in the 



424 GENESIS 

midst of his simply clad shepherd brothers, the very sight of 
him became every day more and more insufferable. 

37: 5 — 11. THE DEEAMS OF JOSEPH. (1729 B. C.) 

5 And Joseph dreamed a dream, and he told it to his brethren : 
and they hated him yet the more. 

6 And he said unto them, Hear, I pray you, this dream which 1 
have dreamed : 

7 for, behold, we were binding sheaves in the field, and, lo, my 
sheaf arose, and also stood upright ; and, behold, your sheaves came 
round about, and made obeisance to my sheaf. 

8 And his brethren said to him, Shalt thou indeed reign over us? 
or shalt thou indeed have dominion over us? And they hated him 
yet the more for his dreams, and for his words. 

9 And he dreamed yet another dream, and told it to his brethren, 
and said, Behold, I have dreamed yet a dream ; and, behold, the sun 
and the moon and eleven stars made obeisance to me. 

10 And he told it to his father, and to his brethren ; and his 
father rebuked him, and said unto him, What is this dream that thou 
hast dreamed? Shall I and thy mother and thy brethren indeed come 
to bow down ourselves to thee to the earth? 

11 And his brethren envied him ; but his father kept the saying in 
mind. 

Although the imprudence of an inexperienced boy (who as 
yet knew nothing of the world) and the culpably manifested 
partiality of his father had a great deal to do with the enmity 
which his brothers bore to him, the two combined form one of the 
most important elements in the plans of divine Providence; and 
this without at all excusing or palliating their wickedness. The 
Psalmist says: 

"He sent a man before them; 

Joseph was sold for a servant" (Ps. 105:17); 

and this was the means which God employed to send that man 
before them, in order to prepare them a place in Egypt; and a 
privileged place, such as corresponded with the purpose which he 
had in view in sending Jacob and his sons into Egypt. 

God still makes use of dreams, of strong impressions, and of 
presentiments, in order to influence the conduct of men; of 
which we have all heard of numerous examples; but these are 
in no sense revelations of the will of God, and one would be 
foolish indeed who allowed himself to be governed by dreams 
and presentiments of this kind. But the case was different in the 
ages in which men had no written revelation of the will of God, 
and in which Jehovah communicated his will to men by different 
kinds of revelations (Heb. 1:1), one of which was dreams. For 
important reasons, then, God prepared Joseph for the terrible 
trials that awaited him, by means of two dreams, or rather a 
double dream, which gave him a strong presentiment of his 



CHAPTER 37: 12—17 425 

coming elevation and greatness; Jacob also received through 
them a strength he greatly needed for the twenty years of 
deep suffering which he was called to endure, before he found 
out what had become of his lost son. We must confess that 
Joseph did not deport himself prudently in this matter, when he 
related his dreams to his brothers, well knowing how they 
regarded him; and his relating the two dreams successively, 
when he had seen how deeply they were offended by the first, 
reveals a lack of good sense and of tact in a lad of seventeen 
years, which gave no great promise for , the future governor 
of Egypt. But not only to his brothers did he tell his dreams; 
he told his father also the second dream; and his father re- 
buked him, for he clearly saw the direction in which his dreams 
were pointing. It is worthy of remark that his father, in this 
reproof, after the death of Rachel, speaks of Leah as "thy 
mother." Vr. 10. "His brothers envied him and hated him the 
more, on account of his dreams and his words"; for it seems 
that he talked about them in an unbecoming manner; but his 
father kept his words in mind, and meditated on the incident. 
There was in it a something, and particularly in the double form 
of his dream, which fixed the old man's attention; as he ques- 
tioned with himself whether or not it might have some practical 
significance with reference to his favorite son. 

37: 12 — 17. joseph is sent from herod to shechem, to bring 

HIS FATHER SOME WORD FROM HIS BRETHREN. (1729 B. C.) 

12 And his brethren went to feed their father's flock in She- 
chem. 

13 And Israel said unto Joseph, Are not thy brethren feeding the 
flock in Shechem? come, and I will send thee unto them. And he 
said to him, Here am I. 

14 And he said to Him, Go now, see whether it is well with thy 
brethren, and well with the flock : and bring me word again. So 
he sent him out of the vale of Hebron, and he came to Shechem. 

15 And a certain man found him, and, behold, he was wandering 
in the field: and the man found him, saying, What seekest thou? 

16 And he said, I am seeking my brethren : tell me, I pray thee, 
where they are feeding the flock. 

17 And the man said, They are departed hence ; for I heard them 
say, Let us go to Dothan. And Joseph went after his brethren, and 
found them in Dothan. 

We know from vr. 14 that at this time Jacob was still In 
Mamre, or Hebron, where his father Isaac died; for Mamre and 
Hebron are used in this history as equivalent terms (ch. 23: 19), 
the oak-grove of Mamre being in the immediate neighborhood 
of that city. The sons of Jacob had gone with their father's 
flocks to Shechem; the scene of the terrible reprisals which they 
had there taken for the dishonor done to their sister Dinah. 



426 GENESIS 

His father was naturally concerned about them, and receiving no 
word from them, he at last became so restless, that he sent 
Joseph to bring him certain intelligence of their welfare. At 
that time, therefore, Joseph was not "feeding the flocks with his 
brethren the sons of Bilhah and Zilpah"; and it may be supposed 
that the relations existing between him and his brothers were 
such that it was thought best for him to remain at home with 
his father. It was 55 of 60 miles from Mamre to Shechem, 
journeying toward the north; but when he arrived there, his 
brothers had gone. Wandering about the field with no certain 
course, a man he met gave him the information that they had 
gone to Dothan, some 20 miles farther to the north; a place 
famous in the days of the prophet Elisha for the protection 
which God there granted to his servant. 2 Kings 11: 23. So 
Joseph followed on and overtook them there. 

37: 18—22. while he was approaching, they conspired against 
him to kill him. (1729 b. c.) 

18 And they saw him afar off, and before he came near unto them, 
they conspired against him to slay him. 

19 And they said one to another, Behold, this dreamer cometh. 

20 Come 'now therefore, and let us slay him, and cast him into 
one of the pits, and we will say, An evil beast hath devoured him ; 
and we shall see what will become of his dreams. 

21 And Reuben heard it, and delixered him out of their hand, and 
said, Let us not take his life. 

22 And Reuben said unto them, Shed no blood ; cast him into this 
pit that is in the wilderness, but lay no hand upon him : that he 
might deliver him out of their hand, to restore him to his father. 

In those lands devoted to the pasturage of cattle, there were 
natural cisterns, or cisterns cut in the solid rock, in order to 
collect and store the water which fell in the rainy season; and 
while Joseph was coming up to them, his brothers devised the 
plan of killing him and casting him into one of those cisterns, 
either to conceal his body, or to create the impression that he 
had himself fallen and perished there. Reuben, the same who 
had profaned the couch of his father (ch. 35: 22), here presents 
himself to us under an extremely favorable aspect. It seems 
that he was a man of good and humane instincts, but weak in his 
character and naturally a sensualist — a very common combina- 
tion; so that although he had committed that great crime which 
cost him his birthright, he was not willing to take part in the 
deed which his brothers were devising against Joseph. But see- 
ing that they were so set on it, that it would be useless to op- 
pose their purpose, he affected to concur with them, provided 
they themselves would not shed his blood, but cast him alive 



CHAPTER 37: 23—30 427 

into one of those cisterns and leave him to his fate; intending 
in this way to deliver him from certain death, and, drawing him 
up secretly, to return him to his father. To this proposal of 
his the others agreed. 

37: 23 — 30. Joseph is sold to a caravan of ishmaelitish and 
midianitish merchants. (1729 b. c.) 

23 And it came to pass, when Joseph was come unto his brethren, 
that they stripped Joseph of his coat, the coat of many colors that 
was on him ; 

24 and they took him, and cast him into the pit : and the pit was 
empty, there was no water in it. 

25 And they sat down to eat bread : and they lifted up their 
eyes and looked, and, behold, a caravan of Ishmaelites was coming 
from Gilead, with their camels bearing spicery and balm and myrrh, 
going to carry it down to Egypt. 

26 And Judah said unto his brethren, What profit is it if we slay 
our brother and conceal his blood? 

27 Come, and let us sell him to the Ishmaelites, and let not our 
hand be upon him ; for he is our brother, our flesh. And his brethren 
hearkened unto him. 

28 And there passed by Midianites, merchantmen ; and they drew 
and lifted up Joseph out of the pit, and sold Joseph to the Ishmael- 
ites for twenty pieces of silver. And they brought Joseph into 
Egypt. 

29 And Reuben returned unto the pit; and, behold, Joseph was 
not in the pit ; and he rent his clothes. 

30 And he returned unto his brethren, and said, The child is not; 
and I, whither shall I go? 

If Joseph was expecting a kind or even a decent reception by 
his brothers, with inquiries after the health of their old father, 
and of their mothers and families, he was quickly undeceived. 
Even before he reached them, he might have read in their averted 
eyes and their scowling faces the fact that they received him 
with ill-will, and were already prepared to vent their spite on 
him. All was in fact arranged beforehand; and when he came 
up to them, without loss of time, they laid hold on him, and 
despoiling him of the hated coat, or tunic, which he had on, 
and shutting their ears against his piteous entreaties (ch. 42: 
21, 22), they cast him into a cistern which was empty, either 
for lack of rain, or because it was one of those of which 
Jeremiah speaks, "broken cistern that can hold no water." Jer. 
2: 13. This done, those heartless men "sat down to eat bread" 
— the term in ordinary use in the Bible for partaking of their 
daily food. But while they were eating, they lifted up their 
eyes and saw that there was coming toward them a caravan of 
Ishmaelites (who in vrs. 28 and 36 are also called "Midianites") 
going down to Egypt; their camels being loaded with balm — the 
precious balm of Gilead — and resinous gums; and Judah, who 
was always the prince among his brethren (see ch. 49: 8 — 12), 



428 GENESIS 

proposed that instead of killing him by hunger and thirst in the 
cistern, they should take him out and sell him to those traveling 
merchants; for by so doing they would get rid of him as effec- 
tually as by his death, and at the same time would derive some 
profit from the sale. With him they all agreed, except Reuben, 
who was not present; and calling the Midianitish merchants, 
they sold Joseph for twenty pieces (or shekels) of silver — 
thirty shekels being the price of a slave. Ex. 21: 32. 

The Ishmaelites and Midianites were both alike descended 
from Abraham; the former by the line of Ishmael, and the latter 
by Keturah, the concubine of Abraham, whose fourth son was 
Midian (ch. 25:2) whom, together with his other brethren, 
Abraham, during his lifetime, had sent away into the country 
of the East; that is to say toward the east of Beersheba, where 
he then resided. When Reuben returned to the cistern and saw 
that Joseph was not there, he rent his clothes, and hurried to 
his brethren with the bitter exclamation on his lips: "The 
child is not! and I, whither shall I go?" They, making small 
account of his anguish, undeceived him, and at once took the 
necessary steps to deceive their old father as to the fate of 
Joseph, and to hide their crime. 

It costs us no effort of imagination to picture to ourselves the 
distress and desperation of the poor boy while this was going 
on. But fortunately they themselves have painted for us in 
vivid colors that scene, which none of them could ever blot 
from their memory: and yet their bowels of brass never re- 
lented. When Joseph, many years later, held them all pris- 
oners, their grief and desperation brought to memory their great 
crime, and they said: "We are verily guilty concerning our 
brother, in that we saw the anguish of his soul, when he 
besought us, and we would not hear; therefore is this distress 
come upon us. And Reuben answered them saying: Spake I 
not unto you, saying: Do not sin against the child! and ye 
would not hear? Therefore behold also his blood is required." 
Ch. 42: 21, 22. This happened twenty-two years after that 
atrocious crime was committed. How difficult it was for them, 
ten in number, to keep that secret! How difficult for Reuben, 
in particular, who took no part in it! and we shall see that 
they did not keep it so well but that Jacob suspected the 
treachery which they had committed. Heavier than a mill- 
stone, the consciousness of their crime weighed upon their 
soul! Yet they never confessed it, to lighten the burden of 
that mill-stone! Such is sin, and such is its natural operation, 
from bad to worse. 



CHAPTER 37: 31—36 429 

37: 31 — 36. Joseph's coat, the affliction of his father, 
joseph is sold into egypt as a slave. (1729 b. c.) 

31 And they took Joseph's coat, and killed a he-goat, and dipped 
the coat in the blood ; 

32 and they sent the coat of many colors, and they brought it 
to their father, and said, This we have found : know now whether it is 
thy son's coat or not. 

33 And he knew it, and said, It is my son's coat ; an evil beast 
hath devoured him ; Joseph is without doubt torn in pieces. 

34 And Jacob rent his garments, and put sackcloth upon his 
loins, and mourned for his son many days. 

35 And all his sons and all his daughters rose up to comfort 
him: but he refused to be comforted; and he said, For I will go 
down to Sheol* to my son mourning. And his father wept for him. 

36 And the Midianites sold him into Egypt unto Potiphar, an 
officer of Pharaoh's, the captain of the guard. 

[*A. V. into the grave. Mod. Span. Ver. to the grave.] 

One sin naturally leads to another. Having dyed the coat 
of Joseph in the blood of a he-goat, they sent it to their father, 
making some one carry it (while they followed behind) with 
the cold and pitiless message: "This have we found: know 
now whether it be thy son's coat or not!" Jacob at once knew 
it, and was plunged into the bitterest grief. Extremely mov- 
ing is the account given us of the affliction of the poor old 
man: "He rent his garments and put sackcloth on his loins 
— symbols of grief, humiliation and anguish, mentioned here 
for the first time — and mourned for his son many days." 
Many days, or rather, many years his father lamented him; 
and when all his sons, who followed after the messenger that 
brought the blood-stained coat, arose, with all his daughters, 
to comfort him, he refused the comfort which they offered, 
saying: "for I will go down to the grave unto my son mourn- 
ing." It seems to me that the efforts which Joseph's brethren 
made to comfort their father would be so heartless and me- 
chanical, and of such transparent hypocrisy, as would at once 
give occasion for him to suspect their good faith. In any case, 
twenty-two years later, Jacob made them this formal accusa- 
tion, without circumlocution: "Me ye have bereaved of my 
children! Joseph is not, and Simeon is not, and ye will take 
Benjamin away!" Ch. 42: 36. "All his daughters," in ad- 
dition to "all his sons," naturally refers to Dinah and the 
wives of his married sons. But since, as a general rule, the 
daughters are omitted in the genealogies of the sons, unless 
there be some notable circumstance to distinguish them, it 
is at least possible that Jacob had by his four wives more 
daughters than the unhappy Dinah; but their names are not 
given in the history. 



430 GENESIS 

[Note 27. — On "Sheol" or "Hades:'' For the first time we 
have here the Hebrew word "sheol," which in the Greek Ver- 
sion of the LXX is always rendered "hades"; and the latter 
is used in the same way eleven times in the Greek text of 
the New Testament. The word is translated in the text of the 
Modern Spanish Version (as in the common English Version), 
"the grave" — "I will go down unto my son, mourning, to the 
grave!" The dispute as to whether "sheol" or "hades" is a place, 
or only a condition, or psychological state, will probably never 
be settled in this life, nor till we, each for himself, enter into 
that state or condition, and find out in our own experience what 
it is. 

Among those who sustain that sheol and hades designate a 
place, there are several opinions, of which I shall cite only that 
of the Roman Catholic Church, which teaches that it is a vast 
subterranean receptacle for the souls of the dead, furnished 
with various departments; such as "Limbo," "Purgatory," the 
"Hell" of the lost, etc. But it is to be noted that the Bible 
never speaks of or refers to different departments of "sheol" 
or "hades." It is, in my belief, the same thing in fact as that 
phrase we have already twice considered, to wit, "give up the 
ghost, died and was gathered to his peoples," or "to his fathers" 
which is used of good and bad indifferently (see comments on 
ch. 25: 8; 35: 29), in the same way as "death" and "the grave": — 
as "the shade" of Samuel said to Saul: "and tomorrow thou 
and thy sons shall be with me" (1 Sam. 28: 19); without refer- 
ence to either heaven or hell, but simply, among the dead; or 
just as David said of his dead child: "I shall go to him, but 
he shall not return to me." 2 Sam. 12: 23. The words have 
no local significance whatever. The different departments of 
sheol or hades are simply a wild conceit which grew up in 
the Ancient Church borrowed, without acknoioledgment, from 
the mythology of the ancient Greeks and Romans. Of that 
form and manner of life (that of souls divested of the body) 
we know nothing, because God has not revealed it to us; and 
it is probable that he could not reveal it to us, for the reason 
that the psychological condition of the dead is an unfathomable 
mystery, a mode of being of xohich ive are not able to form 
even a just conception; for which cause all the language that 
is used in reference to it is necessarily figurative. The or- 
dinary idea that a disembodied soul is an organized being (like 
angels and the heavenly intelligences), ready for any class of 
service, is an extravagance which finds no foothold whatever in 
the word of God. Of which of "the spirits of just men made 



CHAPTER 37: 31—36 431 

perfect" (Heb. 12:23) is such a thing ever said or implied? 
Over this whole field of inquiry the Scriptures observe a pro- 
found silence, strangely in contrast with the voluble loquacity 
of all man-made religions. It is my firm conviction, after a 
great many years of profound study of this point, in the light 
which God's word throws on it, that sheol or hades is not a place 
at all, in any right sense of the word, out a condition or psycho- 
logical state — the mode of existence of souls separate from the 
body, in the time intermediate between death and the resurrection. 

When Jesus died, his soul entered locally into heaven; for 
in dying he cried: "Father, into thy hands I commend my 
spirit!" (Luke 23:46); and to the penitent "thief," or high- 
wayman, he said: "Today shalt thou be with me in paradise!" 
(vr. 43); and paradise is heaven according to 2 Cor. 12: 2 — 4; 
where Paul speaks of "paradise" as being the same thing as 
"the third heaven," wherever that be; and also Rev. 2: 7 
(the only three passages in the Bible in which the word oc- 
curs), where John speaks of "the tree of life, which is in the 
paradise of God"; and it needs no argument to prove that the 
tree of life does not grow in the realms of death! This does 
not admit of doubt or reply; but psychologically speaking, Christ 
entered at the same time into "sheol," or "hades"; that is, 
into the state or condition of souls separate from the body; out 
of which he came on the third day, when he rose again, and 
his soul was reunited with his body forevermore. Jesus left the 
penitent "thief," in hades, or sheol, where he will remain till 
the resurrection of the body; because while divested of the 
body, he is necessarily in hades or sheol; notwithstanding which, 
he has been all these ages "with Christ" in heaven; because 
Paul again says: "While present in the body, we are absent 
from the Lord"; "absent from the body, we are present with 
the Lord"— "to depart and to be with Christ, which is very far 
better." 2 Cor. 5: 6—8; Phil. 1: 23. 

(So also, the dying martyr Stephen, looking upwards, saw 
the heavens opened and Jesus standing at the right hand of 
God; and cried: "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit!" in the per- 
suasion and certainty that he would then take his departing soul 
to himself, where he saw him standing — as if to receive his 
faithful servant at his coming. The Roman Catholic belief 
that immediate admittance into heaven is the special privilege 
of the martyrs, in which ordinary, though real, Christians have 
no share, like most other inventions of Romanism, has no foun- 
dation whatever in the word of God. We are sanctified and 
saved by Christ's blood, and not by our own. 



432 GENESIS 

Covering the whole field of Scripture statement — part only 
of which is given in this Note — comes this express declaration of 
Paul's: "WE KNOW that if the earthly house of this tabernacle 
(marg. or bodily frame) be dissolved, we have a building from 
God, a house not made with hands, eternal, in the heavens." 
2 Cor. 5: 1. The earthly house of Paul's bodily frame was dis- 
solved 1800 years ago; but all this while, his disembodied soul 
has had from God a home in heaven, in the "house not made 
with hands." This we have from his own mouth. When the 
earthly tabernacle was dissolved, then without conditions or 
delay came "the building from God, the house not made with 
hands" — "heaven"; not receiving his reward, but waiting for it 
"at the resurrection of the just"; "waiting for the adoption, 
to wit, the redemption of our body"; not wearing his crown, but 
waiting for "the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the 
righteous Judge, shall give him in that day" (2 Tim. 4: 8) — 
waiting "with Christ" while he "waits, till his enemies be made 
his footstool." Heb. 10: 13. Now if this was certainly "known" 
by Paul and his fellow believers in his day, why should any in 
our day put it in doubt? — Tr.) 

Another conclusive proof that sheol, or hades, is a state, and 
not a material place, is found in the way it is associated with 
"death" in three passages in the New Testament: 1st. In 
Rev. 1: 18, the risen Jesus says: "I have the keys of death 
and of hades," to open and to shut. But as death is not a place 
to have gates and keys, except in a metaphorical sense, so 
neither is "hades" a place, except in a metaphorical sense; the 
two are in one identical case. 2nd. In Rev. 6: 8, John in 
vision saw "a pale horse, and he that was seated upon him 
was called Death; and Hades followed with him." But it is 
a gross absurdity to suppose that John saw a vast subterranean 
region, which went flying through the air, in pursuit of Death 
— something that has no existence whatever, material or spiritual. 
As then, death is a state, and not a material thing, so also hades 
is a state and not a material thing. 3rd. In Rev. 20: 14, after 
the resurrection both of the just and unjust, "death and hades 
were cast into the lake of fire"; that is to say, death and the 
disembodied state were completely and forever destroyed. Now 
then, as "death" is not a thing, but only the separation of soul 
and body, it could not be cast materially anywhere; and it is 
evident that "hades" was in the same case. John did not see 
a place of enormous dimensions called "Hades'' lifted up in 
bulk and thrown into another place still larger, called "the 
lake of fire." As death is not a thing, so hades or sheol i§ 



CHAPTER 38: 1—5 433 

not a thing, but both of them are correspondent states, to wit, 
the violent and contra-natural separation of soul and body (as 
a result of man's sin), and the state or condition, incompre- 
hensible to us, of such separation. As Calvin says (and his 
words will well bear repetition), speaking of that disembodied 
life of the dead (a mode of being totally foreign to the proper 
nature of man, as God created him) : "The wonderful counsel of 
God devised a middle state, that without life they should live 
in death." Institutes, Book III., Ch. 25, Sec. 9. See also the com- 
ments on ch. 42: 38.] 

While Jacob was thus lamenting his son as dead, the Ish- 
maelites and Midianites carried him to Egypt, and sold him 
to Potiphar, captain of the body-guard of the king; who were also, 
as the Hebrew text calls them, "slaughterers," or executioners of 
the prisoners of state, when so ordered by the king. The word 
"officer" is in Hebrew saris —"eunuch," a word which in the 
opinion of many, is used with some latitude in the Hebrew; 
as is seen in the case of the chief of the butlers of Pharaoh, 
and the chief of his bakers, who are both called "eunuchs" 
(ch. 40: 2); and it seems evident that the word often designates 
any officer of the court. The circumstance that he was a mar- 
ried man is not a decisive proof that he was not really a 
eunuch; because, being one of the principal officers of the 
court, he might have taken a wife for sheer ostentation. More 
decisive is the circumstance that he was the captain of the 
royal guard, and it is scarcely credible that one of these un- 
fortunates (emasculated from childhood, in order to serve in 
the harem of despotic and polygamous kings) should be ap- 
pointed to the command of troops, to guard their royal per- 
sons. But neither is this decisive; and the most respectable 
authorities maintain that the Hebrew word saris means "eu- 
nuch" always, in the strict sense of the word. See also comments 
on ch. 40: 2. 



CHAPTER XXXVIII. 

TBS. 1 — 5. JUDAH SEPARATES FROM HIS BRETHREN, AND MARRIES A 

canaanitish woman. (Of uncertain date. Perhaps 1744 b. c.) 

1 And it came to pass* at that time, that Judah went down 
from his brethren, and turned in to a certain Adullamite, whose 
name was Hirah. 

2 And Judah saw there a daughter of a certain Canaanite whose 
name was Shua ; and he took her, and went in unto her. 

[•if. S, V. it had (already) happened.] 



434 GENESIS 

3 And she conceived and bare a son ; and lie called his name Er. 

4 And she conceived again, and bare a son ; and she called his 
name Onan. 

5 And she yet again bare a son, and called his name Shelah : and 
he was at Chezib, when she bare him. 

The history of Joseph is interrupted at this point, in order 
to relate an episode which has to do with the history of Judah, 
and so with the descent of king David (Ruth 4: 18 — 22), and 
thus with the genealogy of Jesus, the Redeemer of the world. 
Matt. 1: 3. 

At the time that Joseph was sold into Egypt, this unfortunate 
union had already taken place* of Judah with that Canaanitish 
woman, of whom we do not know even her name; but we have 
those of her three sons, whose character, or at least that of the 
two elder, was entirely conformable to their Canaanitish and 
pagan extraction. 

It is very difficult to determine the time at which this took 
place; but it must have been a very little time after Jacob's 
return from Padan-aram, while still he was at Succoth, and 
before the rape of Dinah, related in chapter 34. It is not 
necessary to detail the proofs of this here. It will he suffi- 
cient to state that when Jacob and his family went down into 
Egypt, some 32 or 33 years after said return, Pharez (whose 
birth is related in vr. 29 of this chapter) carried with him 
two sons, Ezron and Hamul. Ch. 40: 12. Judah and his two 
older sons, and his son Pharez (who came of this act of incest) 
must all have taken wives (or "women") when very young, in 
order that all this should have happened in the interval between 
the return of Jacob from Padan-aram, and his going down 
into Egypt. But as it all had to do with pagan people, whose 
customs were none too clean, and their ideas of marriage were 
not strict, it might well have been so. For chronological rea- 
sons, therefore, we suppose that this fatal error of Judah took 
place shortly after Jacob and the rest of the family settled in 

*The English Version, and also the Revised, given in' the" Bible text, 
say : "It came to pass at that time," etc. ; which the reader naturally and 
necessarily understands to mean at the time that Joseph was sold into 
Egypt; although it certainly happened eight or ten years before that. 
As is very frequent in Hebrew, "at that time" has a wide (and some- 
times a very wide) reach, and it here embraces all that is related since 
the time of Jacob's return from Padan-aram. The Modern Spanish Version 
seeks to relieve the difficulty by the perfectly legitimate rendering: 
"It had (already) happened at that time," in the full knowledge of the 
fact that it happened not less than eight or ten years before. This is 
not merely admissible, but indispensable, if the very object of a trans- 
lation be, not to mislead, but to put the mind of the reader in correct 
and satisfactory communication with the mind of the writer. See com- 
ments on ch. 25 : 1 — 4. — Tr. 



CHAPTER 38: 1—5 435 

Succoth, some years before he crossed the Jordan, and came 
back into the land of Canaan. See comments on ch. 33: 18 — 21. 

[In Hebrew, and New Testament Greek also,"wife" and "woman" 
are one and the same thing; the same is true in Spanish till 
today; so that "my woman" means "my wife,'" and "his woman" 
means "his wife" ; and in fact in Hebrew and New Testament 
Greek there are properly no other terms for "husband" and 
"wife," except "man" and "woman"; so that, in vr. 2, Judah 
saw there a woman "and took her" does not necessarily imply 
that he married her in our sense of the word; nor were those 
pagans very strict about such matters anyhow.* In Mexico and 
South America, today, and in the Spanish Philippines, from 
one-third to one-half, or more, of the men take women without 
ever being married to them; and in parts of Roman Catholic 
Europe much the same state of things exists. See footnote on 
Amancehamiento on page 35. Judah no doubt took this woman 
before he was of marriageable age, according to our standard 
of things. In this, the usages of different peoples vary not a 
little. Our American newspapers have lately contained the 
statement that in Spain the legal age of marriage is fourteen 
for men, and twelve for women, and that a bill has been in- 
troduced in the Spanish Cortes to alter the law on that point, 
advancing the legal age for marriage. But whatever may or 
may not be the legal age in Spain, the statement shows that 
there is nothing improbable in what is here said about Judah, 
and his sons, and his grandson. It may not be amiss to add 
that the Roman Catholic canonist, Doming Cavalario, lays down 
the same rule for the legal age of marriage. Derecho Canonico, 
Part II, Ch. 21, Sec. 4; so that, according to this rule, Judah, 
and his sons, and his grandsons, may all of them have had "law- 
ful marriage" at fourteen years. A recent commentator, A. R. 
Fausset, in commenting on Mai. 2: 14, says: "The Jews still 
marry very young, the husband being often but thirteen, the wife 
younger." — Tr.] 

The chapter is extremely shameful for Judah; but the most 
substantial part of it is referred to in Matt. 1: 3, on relating 
the genealogy of Jesus Christ according to the flesh; in order 
to give emphasis to the fact that "God sent his Son in the like- 

*The same thing is true of all pagan countries today ; and this con- 
stitutes the peculiar peril (to young men especially) of life in India, 
China and Japan. A recent magazine article says it is common usage 
; in China to hire young women in this capacity from their parents 
by the year; all obligation ceasing when the contract time is expired ! 
It is well for Christian people at home to know enough about the ways 
of the world they live in. — Tr. 



436 GENESIS 

ness of sinful flesh'' 1 (Rom. 8:3); and thus it was that he 
hound up his personal destinies with those of our fallen race. 

Judah began the great error of his life by separating from 
his brethren (Heb. he "went down from them" — to the Jordan, 
probably, and beyond it), instead of living in perpetual union 
with the altar of his father, in the midst of a race of pagans, 
whose customs were bad, very bad. See Lev. 18: 24 — 27; 20: 23; 
Deut. 12: 31. Instead of this, being nothing more than a boy, 
he separated from his brethren, and joined friendship with one 
Hirah, an Adullamite, — from Adullam (far to the south), which 
later was a royal city of the Canaanites, and apportioned to 
the tribe of Judah. Josh. 12: 15; 15: 35. There, in the midst 
of these gentiles, he saw a Canaanitish woman and took her 
as his wife. The children which came of this union were worse 
than might have been expected even of a Canaanitish and pagan 
mother; or at least the two elder were so. 

38: 6 11. THE CHILDREN OF JUDAH AND THE CANAANITISH WOMAN. 

6 And Judah took a wife for Er his first-born, and her name was 
Tamar. 

7 And Er, Judah's first-born, was wicked in the sight of Jehovah ; 
and Jehovah slew bim. 

8 And Judah said unto Onan, Go in unto thy brother's wife, and 
perform the duty of a husband's brother unto her, and raise up seed 
to thy brother. 

9 And Onan knew that the seed would not be his ; and it came to 
pass, when he went in unto his brother's wife, that he spilled it on 
the ground, lest he should give seed to his brother. 

10 And the thing which he did was evil in the sight of Jehovah : 
and he slew him also. 

11 Then said Judah to Tamar his daughter-in-law, Remain a 
widow in thy father's house, till Shelah my son be grown up ; for he 
said, Lest he also die, like his brethren. And Tamar went and 
dwelt in her father's house. 

When Er, the first-born of Judah, was grown, or at least 
marriageable, his father took him a wife (likewise a Canaanite), 
named Tamar; but such was the wickedness of the husband, that 
Jehovah slew him. What may have been the nature of his 
wickedness, we do not know; but since it is related as the 
wickedness of a married man, and besides, as carnal sins were 
those to which the Canaanites were especially prone, and as 
his brother Onan died for like cause, it is natural enough to 
suppose that it was for secret sins of uncleanness, not once, 
but many times committed, in the bonds of matrimony. Upon 
the sins which are committed in the state of marriage, the 
Bible tells us very little; although the Roman confessional is 
occupied largely with them, and with their most horrible and 
revolting details. It is worthy of remark that God has regarded 



CHAPTER 38: 6—11 437 

as most convenient and proper to draw the veil of a decent 
reserve over the intimate relations of married people, intend- 
ing that his word, with its exhortations to purity and holiness 
of life, should work in each one (and on his individual re- 
sponsibility), a sound morality in this, as in all the other re- 
lations of life: "Husbands love your wives, as Christ also 
loved the Church and gave himself for it, that he might sanctify 
it," etc. Uncleanness and indecency stand paralyzed before 
such a precept. Eph. 5: 25 — 27. "Likewise ye husbands dwell 
with them according to knowledge (or good sense), giving 
honor to the wife as unto the weaker vessel, and as being heirs 
together of the grace of life; that your prayers oe not hindered" 
1 Pet. 3: 7. The Papal Church, which removes the Bible from 
the sight and knowledge of the people, even in its acts of public 
worship, substitutes therefor a Latin service and the Romish 
confessional, as a much more effectual means for regulating the 
life both of the married and unmarried; but who that is capable 
of observation and the exercise of his own reason will judge 
that the filthiness and shameful impertinences of the Confes- 
sional are means of repressing vice and wickedness to be 
compared with the only plan and system which God has ap- 
proved, and which has borne such precious fruit wherever this 
method of God's choice and appointment is adopted and followed? 
for although all men do not fear God, nor lead a virtuous and 
holy life, the Bible forms an elevated social and public opinion, 
which next to personal grace, is the most powerful means of 
purifying and elevating society. 

In conformity with the law of the levirate (Deut. 25: 5 — 7), 
established under the Mosaic economy for the case of married 
brothers who died without issue, and which from this passage 
appears to have been of very ancient use, Judah told Onan, 
his second son, to take the wife of his brother, in order that 
the latter should not remain without a son and heir. But 
Onan added to the character of a low sensualist that of a 
malicious despiser of his deceased brother; abusing at the 
same time the person of the widow, and defrauding her just 
hopes. This conduct of his (which was his use and custom), 
so angered Jehovah, that he slew him also. 

This history of Onan and of Tamar has been severely criticised 
by those who regard themselves as wiser and purer than the 
God who made them. But Paul says that "all Scripture (in- 
cluding this entire chapter) is given by inspiration of God, 
and is profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for 
instruction in righteousness." 2 Tim. 3: 16. The matters treated 



438 GENESIS 

of in this chapter are of a delicate character undoubtedly, or, 
if you please, indelicate, and are not proper for public read- 
ing, nor for that of the family; but the narrative is "profitable" 
and was placed here to be read in private; and it "is profitable 
for the correction" of those who are addicted to secret vices and 
social impurity. We live in a world of sin and of sinners, and 
it is impossible wholly to avoid contact with them. In strongest 
contrast with the corrupt literature of the day, the Bible 
sets before us the wickednesses of men as they are, without 
any disguise, in all their hideous nakedness; and close to the 
narrative of real facts, it always places the antidote or remedy. 
A thousand times better that our sons, and our daughters like- 
wise, learn something of the sins and wickednesses of men as 
the Bible presents them, rather than come to know them by 
their own experience of what men are and of what they are 
capable, or by the reading of books and witnessing of theatrical 
representations, which, without the use of words disallowed 
by polite society, inoculate the soul with a deadly poison. 

It is not revealed to us in what way Jehovah slew these 
two wretches; but it is clear that it happened in such a man- 
ner that suspicions fell on the young wife, twice widowed, 
and probably within the space of a few months. It devolved on 
Shelah to take the widow of his two brothers; but his father 
was fearful that their untimely end might become his like- 
wise. He therefore told Tamar to return home and remain 
as a widow (clad in the garments of widowhood, vrs. 14, 19), in 
the house of her father, until Shelah was grown; and she 
did so. 

38: 12 — 23. the artifice of tamab. 

12 And in process of time Shua's daughter, the wife of Judah, 
died ; and Judah was comforted, and went up unto his sheep- 
shearers to Timnah, he and his friend Hirah the Adullamite. 

13 And it was told Tamar, saying, Behold, thy father-in-law goeth 
up to Timnah to shear his sheep. 

14 And she put off from her the garments of her widowhood, and 
covered herself with her veil, and wrapped herself, and sat in the 
gate of Enaim, which is by the way to Timnah, for she saw that 
Shelah was grown up, and she was not given unto him to wife. 

15 When Judah saw her, he thought her to be a harlot ; for she 
had covered her face. 

16 And he turned unto her by the way, and said, Come, I pray 
thee, let me come in unto thee : for he knew not that she was his 
daughter-in-law. And she said, What wilt thou give me, that thou 
mayest come in unto me? 

17 And he said, I will send thee a kid of the goats from the 
flock. And she said. Wilt thou give me a pledge, till thou send it? 

18 And he said, What pledge shall I give thee? And she said, 
Thy signet and thy cord, and thy staff that is in thy hand. And he 
gave them to her, and came in unto her, and she conceived by him. 



CHAPTER 38: 12—23 439 

19 And she arose, and went away, and put off her veil from her, 
and put on the garments of her widowhood. 

20 And Judah sent the kid of the goats by the hand of his 
friend the Adullamite. to receive the pledge from the woman's 
hand : but he found her not. 

21 Then he asked the men of her place, saying, Where is the 
prostitute, that was at Enaim by the wayside? And they said, 
There hath been no prostitute here. 

22 And he returned to Judah, and said, I have not found her ; 
and also the men of the place said, There hath been no prostitute 
here. 

23 And Judah said, Let her take it to her, lest we be put to 
Bhame: behold, I sent this kid, and thou hast not found her. 

Tamar was astute and a woman of resolution, and seeing, 
with the lapse of time, that Judah was not going to give her 
to Shelah, but was trying rather to get rid of her, like a 
pagan and a Canaanite, she resolved to take reprisals on himself; 
since it was not lawful for her to marry another while Shelah 
lived. It is not necessary to enter into the details of this 
artifice of hers; the text is plain enough: — she claimed her 
place in the family of Judah, while he was evidently trying to 
separate her from him. In this plan of hers we see, first, that 
in point of moral character, Judah was no better than a pagan; 
and second, that Tamar was well acquainted with that> fact, and 
on this knowledge she based her plan to ensnare him, and 
obtain the place in his family that was hers of right. With 
much shrewdness she protected herself against the consequences 
of such an act, taking undeniable pledges from the father of 
her child. She withdrew at once with the pledges obtained, 
which she carefully kept for the proper occasion. 

The word "prostitue," in vrs. 21 and 22, fills us with blush- 
ing and shame, on considering what men are capable of being 
and doing, even in the matter of religion! It is the selfsame 
word that in the worship of Jehovah and of our Lord Jesus 
Christ, is rendered "holy," "saint," or "consecrated" one, which 
was used even in times so remote, for those who "consecrated" 
their persons to the service of the filthy gods and goddesses 
of paganism. Even before the word is used of the "saints," 
or "consecrated ones" of Jehovah, we find it in current use for 
women who prostituted their persons to the shameless rites 
of Astarte, the "Venus" of the Syrians and Canaanites. Hor- 
rible prostitution of words, as well as persons! The masculine 
form of the word was used for those of the opposite sex who 
prostituted their persons on the altars of the same pagan 
goddess, consecrating themselves to her, for the practice of 
vices which may not be named. See Deut. 23: 17. Compare 
also what Moses says of the same impure rites in Deut. 20: 18 



440 GENESIS 

— "all their abominations, which they have done unto their 
gods." What "saints" are these of paganism! and what gods! 
Thus it was done in Rome itself, in the days of its greatest 
glory and corruption, among all classes! (read the record in 
Rom. 1: 24 — 27) ; and our missionaries tell us that the same im- 
pure religious rites are common in Hindustan today, even under 
British rule. 

The Rev. Dr. A. P. Mendes, referred to on p. 244, corrected 
my translation of vr. 23 thus: "Lest we make ourselves ridicu- 
lous"; but whether it be "appear ridiculous," or "fall into con- 
tempt," as the Mod. Span. Ver. has it, or "be put to shame" as 
in the English text, it is instructive to notice in how much 
greater esteem sinners hold the good opinion of men than 
the good opinion of God. As Jesus says: "They love the 
praise of men more than the praise of God." John 12: 43. 

38: 24 — 26. judah condemns her to death; but tamar frees 
herself by means of the pledges she had taken from 

HIMSELF. 

24 And it came to pass about three months after, that it was 
told Judah, saying, Tamar thy daughter-in-law hath played the 
harlot ; and moreover, behold, she is with child by whoredom. And 
Judah said, Bring her forth, and let her be burnt. 

25 When she was brought forth, she sent to her father-in-law, 
saying, By the man, whose these are, am I with child : and she 
said, Discern, I pray thee, whose are these, the signet, and the 
cords, and the staff. 

26 And Judah acknowledged them, and said, She is more righteous 
than I, forasmuch as I gave her not to Shelah my son. And he knew 
her again no more. 

We see here that in Canaan, the same as in other nations 
and peoples of ancient times, adultery was punished with death; 
but in the midst of the ruling corruption of social habits, it 
is certain that they did not look to the moral side of the 
question, so much as to the inconvenience arising from the 
disturbance of the peace of families, and particularly to the 
inability of the husband and father to distinguish between his 
own children and those of another. Even that great Roman, 
Cicero, said, as is related of him, that adultery was a grave 
crime, but that simple fornication among the unmarried was a 
matter of small importance. [And Herodotus, "the father of 
history," particularly describes the public prostitution of their 
persons, with some stranger, which every young woman in 
Babylon, from the highest to the lowest, was expected to make, 
in the temple of Melitta, the Babylonian Venus, before she was 
eligible for marriage. See Adam Clarke's Commentary on 2 



CHAPTER 38 : 24—26 441 

Kings 17: 39. It is every way important for our people to 
understand the extreme corruption of manners that prevailed in 
Bible lands, instead of judging of them more or less by people 
in Christian lands, as most people seem to do. Without this, 
the Bible can never be properly understood, nor can we truly 
know from what a bottomless abyss of corruption the word and 
revelation of God has delivered us. — Tr.] 

It would seem also that without appealing to judges or tribu- 
nals, the father was the competent judge to decide in such 
cases, and even to punish with death. Among the ancient 
Romans also, the "pater familias" exercised the power of life 
and death, not only over his slaves, but over the members of 
his own family. Judah, who as we have seen in the case 
of Joseph, was not a bit compassionate with his own brother, 
was still less so with his daughter-in-law, who being the widow 
of his two elder sons, and pledged to be the wife of the third, 
was reputed an adulteress; so that without entering on any 
investigation of the matter, he decided summarily the case, and 
ordered that she be taken out and burnt. Such promptitude and 
such severity in judgment show the little estimation in which 
human life was held; and seem besides to manifest a cer- 
tain degree of malevolence towards her on the part of Judah 
(without being able to prove anything against her), as the 
cause of the untimely and suspicious death of his two elder 
sons. It gives us a bad opinion of the administration of 
justice in those times, to see that she was not so much as 
brought into the presence of her father-in-law, before she was 
sentenced and even led out to be burnt; so that she, without 
having the opportunity to defend herself, or even to deliver in 
person the pledges into his hands, was obliged to send them 
to him, with the message which opened his eyes to his in- 
justice, if not to his sin. Judah recognized the pledges, the 
signet, the cords and the staff, which he himself had given 
her, and said: "She is more righteous than I; forasmuch as 
I gave her not to Shelah my son;" but of his own sin of adultery 
and of incest he seems not to have made much account. He 
had condemned her to death by fire, for a sin in which he 
had taken the principal part! God will not thus decide in 
that day when he will "judge the world in righteousness by 
Jesus Christ." Society makes (and perhaps necessarily), a dis- 
tinction of sexes in sins of unchastity; but not so with God: 
the man will always be held as equally guilty with the woman, 
and in most cases as more guilty than she. And in the penalties 



442 GENESIS 

imposed under the Mosaic law, the same punishment was meted 
out to the one as to the other. 

The penalty of death by fire it would seem was not unfre- 
quent among the pagans. According to the Mosaic law, that 
penalty was imposed in but a single case — that of the daughter 
of a priest who gave herself up to a life of social impurity, 
profaning thus both herself and her father. Lev. 21: 9. But 
in her case it is to be supposed that she was to be "burnt after 
she was stoned; as was actually done to Acan; in whose case 
we have a particular account of this identical sentence, and 
of the manner of its execution. Josh. 7: 15, 25, 26. 

38: 27 — 30. the a'ccouchement. 

27 And it came to pass in the time of her travail, that, behold, 
twins were in her womb. 

28 And it came to pass, when she travailed, that one put out 
a hand : and the midwife took and bound upon his hand a scarlet 
thread, saying, This came out first. 

29 And it came to pass, as he drew back his hand, that, behold, 
his brother came out : and she said, Wherefore hast thou made a 
breach for thyself? therefore his name was called Perez. 

30 And afterward came out his brother, that had the scarlet thread 
upon his hand : and his name was called Zerah. 

Tamar gave birth to twins, of which the elder was Pharez, 
or according to the Hebrew, Perez — a name of distinction in 
Israel. From him was descended David, and through him, 
Jesus Christ our Lord. Ruth 4: 18—22; Matt. 1: 3. The sec- 
ond was Zerah, of whom we know only that, Er and Onan 
having died childless, he with Shelah and Pharez were the 
progenitors of the tribe of Judah. It is to be noted that, in 
spite of the blot that darkens the good name of Tamar, she 
and her son Pharez appear to have always been favorites among 
the people of Israel; due perhaps to the decision of character 
and resolution of spirit which she manifested, and the tragic 
interest that invested the birth of the boy. Thus it was that 
the elders and the people of Bethlehem blessed Boaz, when he 
took to wife Ruth the Moabitess, saying: "And let thy house 
be like the house of Pharez, whom Tamar bare unto Judah, of 
the seed which Jehovah shall give thee of this young woman!" 
Ruth 4: 12. 

We will not leave this chapter without calling attention again 
to the fact that in the genealogical table of the descent, ac- 
cording to the flesh, of Jesus Christ, the Saviour of the world, 
with which Matthew begins his Gospel, he, by direction and 
guidance of the Holy Spirit, brings to mind the fact that the 
Son of God and Redeemer of men came of this very act of both 






CHAPTER 39: 1—6 443 

incest and adultery, of which the account is given in this 
chapter: "And Judah begat Pharez and Zerah of Tamar; and 
Pharez begat Hezron," etc. Matt. 1: 3. And if some fastidious 
reader, who presumes to be more pure and prudent than Moses 
and Matthew, and than the Holy Spirit who guided their pens, 
shall ask: "What is the practical utility of this indecorous 
story that we have in this chapter?" it will be sufficient (in 
addition to the reasons previously given), to reply: "In order 
that it may be known to all that Jesus Christ was not lorn 
of "an immaculate vessel,"" as Roman Catholics persistently 
affirm that it must Jiave oeen, — (though the Bible says not 
a word about it, and the Papal Church itself could not decide 
the matter of the immaculate conception of Mary to its own satis- 
faction, after centuries of wrangling about it, till 1800 years 
after her death) ; affirming rather that Christ, the Redeemer, 
came of a sinful race, and that his line of descent was stained 
with the worst of sins and crimes; and no doubt for this very 
reason the Holy Spirit has given us detailed accounts of Tamar, 
and of Rahab, and of Bathsheba; each one of whom figures by 
name in this genealogical table with which Matthew's Gospel 
begins — "The genealogy of Jesus Christ, the Son of David, the 
Son of AoraharrC — the only genealogy in the Bible that calls 
attention to the scandalous sins committed in the line of 
any man's descent. "God sent fyis own Son in the likeness of 
sinful flesh" Rom. 8: 3. 



CHAPTER XXXIX. 

VBS. 1 — 6. THE INTERRUPTED HISTORY OF JOSEPH IS HERE RESUMED. 

(1729 B. C.) 

1 And Joseph was brought down to Egypt; and Potiphar, an 
officer of Pharaoh's, the captain of the guard, an Egyptian, bought 
him of the hand of the Ishmaelites, that had brought him down 
thither. 

2 And Jehovah was with Joseph, and he was a prosperous man ; 
and he was in the house of his master the Egyptian. 

3 And his master saw that Jehovah was with him, and that 
Jehovah made all that he did to prosper in his hand. 

4 And Joseph found favor in his sight, and he ministered unto 
him : and he made him overseer over his house, and all that he had 
he put into his hand. 

5 And it came to pass from the time that he made him overseer 
in his house, and over all that he had, that Jehovah blessed the 
Egyptian's house for Joseph's sake; and the blessing of Jehovah was 
upon all that he had, in the house and in the field. 

fi And he left all that he had in Joseph's hand: and he knew not 
aught that was with him. save the bread which he did eat. And 
Joseph was comely, and well-favored. 



444 GENESIS 

That episode with regard to the family of Judah being finished, 
the history of Joseph is resumed at the point where we left 
him, at the close of chapter 37, sold as a slave to Potiphar, 
an officer of Pharaoh, in Egypt. At every step we here see 
the hand of the divine Providence. With respect to this special 
providence which carried Jacob and his family into Egypt, 
to make of them there a strong nation, and educate them 
for the high destinies that awaited them, the Psalmist says: 

"He sent a man before them; 

Joseph was sold for a servant: 

his feet they hurt with fetters; 

he was laid in chains of iron, 

until the time that his word came to pass, 

the word of Jehovah tried him. 

The king sent and loosed him, 

even the ruler of peoples and let him go free. 

He made him lord of his house, 

and ruler of all his substance; 

to bind his princes at his pleasure, 

and teach his senators wisdom. 

Israel also came into Egypt, 

and Jacob sojourned in the land of Ham." 

Ps. 105: 17—23. 

In all this, it was the purpose of God to educate this pas- 
toral people and fit them to act in the world the most important 
part that any nation has ever performed; and he took care 
that the circumstances should be the most favorable possible 
for this end. If there be a history that should be called par 
excellence "The Drama of Divine Providence," it is this of 
Joseph; and yet neither he, nor his father, nor any one else 
in those ages was capable of understanding it, except in dis- 
joined and incomplete parts. 

In the midst of his calamities, Jehovah was with Joseph, 
and made him "a prosperous man," to such a degree that his 
master could not but perceive it; and he entrusted to his 
hands all that he possessed. Joseph's personal endowments, 
which from a child had almost infatuated his father, did not 
fail to secure him the high esteem of his master also, and 
when to this was added that notable prosperity with which 
Jehovah blessed him, for Joseph's sake, the confidence which 
he reposed in him became unbounded. The declaration that 
"his master saw that Jehovah was with him," etc., makes it 
evident that Joseph did not leave, like too many, his religion 



CHAPTER 39: 1—6 445 

in his father's home, nor concealed it in the house of his 
Egyptian master. He did not forget, nor was he ashamed of 
the name of Jehovah his God. It was no Egyptian god who, 
in the conviction and by the confession of Potiphar, blessed 
him for Joseph's sake. The Egyptian had the good sense not to 
esteem him the less on that account; and it is probable that 
because he had "let his light shine before men," his master 
did not give too much credit to the crime which his own wife 
laid to the charge of Joseph. 

The statement in vr. 2 that "he was in the house of his 
master the Egyptian," means to say that Joseph was occupied 
in domestic duties and in the management of his master's 
dwelling, where he was in constant and familiar intercourse 
with his family; and from that circumstance came his prin- 
cipal danger, on account of those very personal endowments 
which everywhere gained him the good will of all. The words 
"and Joseph was comely and well favored," or, as more exactly 
given, according to the Hebrew text, in the Modern Spanish 
Version, "was of a handsome figure and beautiful countenance," 
are precisely those with which in ch. 29: 17 is described the 
extraordinary beauty of his mother Rachel; and as these same 
words are never used of any others, it is reasonable to infer 
that the mother and the son were much alike, and that a manly 
beauty such as his was something seldom seen, particularly 
among the swarthy Egyptians. Extraordinary beauty is a very 
great gift of God, which, since sin entered into the world, is 
fortunately very rare; for it is the cause of many sins, and 
is always attended with constant dangers. And yet we may be 
very sure that every variation from the absolute perfection 
of face and form, in our race, is due directly or indirectly 
to the sin of man; and is perhaps the least important and 
deplorable of its consequences. But when redeeming grace 
shall have fully accomplished its work, and "Israel is saved 
in the Lord with everlasting salvation," we shall know forms 
of beauty of which we now can but dimly conceive. "He shall 
beautify the meek with salvation" Ps. 149: 4. "Let the beauty 
of the Lord our God be upon us!"- Ps. 90: 17. God will have 
no homely children in that his coming kingdom of righteousness 
and life eternal, where we shall see beauty without impure 
desire, and another's prosperity and happiness, without one 
envious thought. The manly beauty of Joseph was worth no 
little to him in his master's esteem, and served him a valuable 
purpose when he was exalted to the second place in Pharaoh's 



446 -GENESIS 

kingdom; but in so far as concerned his mistress, his master's 
wife, it came little short of costing him his life. 

39: 7 — 18. THE TEMPTATION" AND TRIAL OF JOSEPH. 

(Of uncertain date.) 

7 And it came to pass after these things, that his master's wife 
cast her eyes upon Joseph; and she said, Lie with me. 

8 But he refused, and said unto his master's wife, Behold, my 
master knoweth not what is with me in the house, and he hath 
put all that he hath into my hand : 

9 he is not greater* in this house than I; neither hath he kept 
back anything from me but thee, because thou art his wife: how 
then can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God? 

10 And it came to pass, as she spake to Joseph day by day, that 
he hearkened not unto her, to lie by her, or to be with her. 

11 And it came to pass about this time, that he went into the 
house to do his work ; and there was none of the men of the house 
there within. 

12 And she caught him by his garment, saying, Lie with me : and 
he left his garment in her hand, and fled, and got him out. 

. 13 And it came to pass, when she saw that he had left his garment 
in her hand, and was fled forth, 

14 that she called unto the men of her house, and spake unto 
them, saying, See, he hath brought in a Hebrew unto us to mock us : 
he came in unto me to lie with me, and I cried with a loud voice : 

15 and it came to pass, when he heard that I lifted up my voice 
and cried, that he left his garment by me, and fled, and got him 
out. 

16 And she laid up his garment by her, until his master came 
home. 

17 And she spake unto him according to these words, saying, The 
Hebrew servant, whom thou hast brought unto us, came in unto me 
to mock me : 

18 and it came to pass, as I lifted up my voice and cried, that he 
left his garment by me, and fled out. 

l*A. Y. and R. V., there is none greater.] 

Joseph was 17 years old when he was sold into Egypt. I 
suppose that any attentive reader of what had happened since 
then would say that at this time he could not have been less 
than 23 to 25. The things here related are not those of a boy 
of seventeen. So that the common chronology, which is given 
in our Bibles, is in conflict with this intimate conviction of 
every reader; for it gives one and the same date to all these 
happenings: so that Joseph was 17 years old when sold into 
Egypt; 17 when made steward of all his master's estate; 17 
when his mistress tempted him to do that great wickedness 
and sin against God; 17 when upon her false accusation he 
was cast into prison, and there became, in fact, keeper of 
the king's prisoners; where he passed the 13 intermediate 
years, till, when 30 years of age, he was presented before 
Pharaoh. This fact sets in a clear light the uncertainty of many 
of the dates given in the margin of our Bibles. See Note 12, 



CHAPTER 39: 19—23 447 

on Biblical Chronology. We take for granted, therefore, that 
the prosperous state of Joseph lasted from five to eight years 
in the house of his master, and that he was from twenty-three 
to twenty-five years old when his mistress put his virtue and 
piety to such sore proof; so that he would not pass more than 
from four to seven years in prison, till the time that he was 
presented before Pharaoh. The commentator Adam Clarke gives 
him nine years in his master's house, and only four years in 
prison. 

The trial of Joseph came to him in a form the most im- 
possible to evade, and the hardest to resist. When a woman, 
and especially a married woman, puts aside her honor, and 
resolves at all hazards to do her pleasure and effect her pur- 
pose, there is nothing in the world more dangerous than she. 
Solomon has said: "I find more bitter than death the woman 
whose heart is snares and nets, and whose hands are bands; 
whoso pleaseth God shall escape from her; but the sinner shall 
be taken by her." Eccl. 7: 26. The duties of Joseph kept him 
precisely at home, and he could not be in the house without 
being in the way of temptation; and every day his master's 
wife renewed her criminal solicitations. By yielding to them, 
Joseph would for awhile have passed a life of ease and sinful 
indulgence; by resisting her demands, he ran the risk of almost 
certain ruin. But the fear of sinning against God (as he 
frankly confessed to her), and not the dictates of a merely 
human prudence, nor merely gratitude towards his master who 
had entrusted his honor and all his interests to his hands, 
detained him, even though it should cost him his life. So 
that he not only rejected her proposals, but would not even 
consent to be near her. More than this he could not do, with- 
out fleeing from the house; which, being a slave, he was un« 
able to do. His master's wife, therefore, finding herself unable 
to gain her end, determined to wreak her vengeance on him; 
and the vengeance of a wicked woman knows no bounds; so 
that if her husband had had entire confidence in her, he would 
probably have taken Joseph's life without further delay, as 
she had in her hand his garment, to accredit her words. 

39: 19 — 23. joseph in pkison. (Of uncertain date.) 

19 And it came to pass, when his master heard the words of his 
wife, which she spake unto him, saying, After this manner did thy 
servant to me ; that his wrath was kindled. 

20 And Joseph's master took him, and put him into the prison, 
the place where the king's prisoners were bound : and he was there 
in the prison. 



448 GENESIS 

21 But Jehovah was with Joseph, and showed kindness unto him, 
and gave him favor in the sight of the keeper of the prison. 

22 And the keeper of the prison committed to Joseph's hand all 
the prisoners that were in the prison; and whatsoever they did 
there, he was the doer of it. 

23 The keeper of the prison looked not to anything that was under 
his hand, because Jehovah was with him ; and that which he did, 
Jehovah made it to prosper. 

The wise king has said: "There is a righteous man that 
perisheth in (or by) his righteousness; and there is a wicked 
man that prolongeth his life in (or by) his evil-doing." Eccl. 
7: 15. Undoubtedly Joseph knew perfectly with whom he had 
to do, but it is clear that he was resolved to "resist unto blood, 
striying against sin." Heb. 12: 4. 

One of two things: either his master being a eunuch, as says 
the Hebrew text, believed that the wife did not behave any 
worse with him than he with her; or, doubting of her good 
faith, although burning in anger, he thought best to examine 
the matter more thoroughly, before punishing with greater 
severity his favorite slave and the most valuable attendant he 
had; he therefore cast him into prison, the prison in which 
were kept the king's prisoners, and of which he, as captain 
of the guard, had the command; although he had a jailor 
under him, to whom he committed the immedate care of the 
prisoners. We know by ch. 40: 3, 7, that the prison was "in 
the house of the captain of the guard," and by vr. 15, that 
it was a "dungeon" {Heb. pit). The word "prison" (ch. 39: 20; 
40: 3) in the Hebrew text is "round house," or castle; so that 
Joseph did not go out of the house of his master, but was in 
the subterranean part, or dungeons, of the same, which formed 
the jail of the prisoners of the king. 

In the midst of these great trials which he suffered "for 
righteousness sake," God granted him marked tokens of his 
approval, "and gave him favor in the eyes of the keeper of 
the prison," just as he had given him grace or favor in the 
eyes of his master, when he was first brought to Egypt. Ch. 
39: 4. It is most important for us in times of severe afflic- 
tion and trial, when we are sure that we are walking the path 
of duty and in the way of righteousness, to look for those 
favorable providences with which God ordinarily sustains the 
hope of his people, and interpret them as indications of his 
favor and love; that we may be of good cheer and not faint 
under the burden. Thus it happened with Joseph; and the 
keeper of the prison put into his hands the internal manage- 
ment of the prison; and he gave himself no care about it, 
"because Jehovah was with Joseph, and that which he did 






CHAPTER 40: 1—4 449 

Jehovah made it to prosper" — a repetition of the words which 
describe in vr. 3, the prosperous estate which at one time he 
enjoyed in the house of his master, and the unlimited con- 
fidence which his master reposed in him. If it he asked what 
right the jailor had to delegate to Joseph the obligations which 
were officially and personally his own, ch. 40: 4 will give us 
the proof that he did so with a full knowledge and consent of 
the captain of the guard; because when the chief of the 
bakers and the chief of the butlers sinned against Pharaoh, 
and were cast into prison, the captain of the guard himself, 
Joseph's master, gave him the charge of them. Ch. 40: 4. It 
is clear, therefore, that what had passed with his wife had 
not at all diminished the esteem in which he held Joseph, 
and that he had yet entire confidence in his rectitude. 

CHAPTER XL. 

VRSl"! — 4."~ THE CHIEF OF PHARAOH'S BUTLERS, AND THE CHIEF OF 
HIS BAKERS. (1718 B. C.) 

1 And it came to pass after these things, that the butler of the 
king of Egypt and his baker offended their lord the king of Egypt. 

2 And Pharaoh was wroth against his two officers, against the 
chief of the butlers, and against the chief of the bakers. 

3 And he put them in ward in the house of the captain of the 
guard, into the prison, the place where Joseph was bound. 

4 And the captain of the guard charged Joseph with them, and 
he ministered unto them : and they continued a season in ward. 

With" these new favors which God granted him, the hard 
lot of Joseph was gradually improved. To be esteemed, and to 
see that unlimited confidence is reposed in one's rectitude, can 
sweeten even life in a prison. Besides this, the supreme com- 
mand of the house of his master, and afterwards the command 
and direction of the affairs of a prison, was no small part of 
his education to preside later in the government of the land 
of Egypt. 

These two officers of Pharaoh are called "eunuchs" in the 
Hebrew text. "Such persons from ancient times have been and 
still are employed in Oriental courts, as the guards and attend- 
ants in harems; and others of the same class often hold offices 
of even greater importance. They are frequently cowardly, 
jealous, intriguers, and the instruments of despots and liber- 
tines, ready for every evil work; being shameless and cruel. 
They are also peculiarly disposed to melancholy, and, as the 
only means of ridding themselves of the insupportable burden 
of life, to suicide. Eunuchs are a natural consequence of 
polygamy, and are numerous in Oriental cities. In ancient 



450 GENESIS 

Rome there were many; as also in Greece during the Byzantine 
period. There are even today in Rome at least a few, who sing 
soprano in the Sixtine Chapel — the only example of it to be 
found in Christian countries." Schaff's Bible Dictionary, "Eu- 
nuch." This barbarous and cruel usage, tolerated in Rome under 
the very eyes of the Pope, is condemned by the Mosaic law in 
every form. Deut. 23: 1; Lev. 21: 20. Comp. Lev. 22: 24. Some 
have believed, and still believe, that in the Bible the word is 
often merely a title of office, and designates any officer of the 
court. But the better the usages and customs of the Orientals, 
both ancient and modern, are known, the more does the opinion 
of the learned incline to the belief that the word ought always 
to be understood in its strict and natural sense. For me, the 
most conclusive proof that, with use and custom, the Hebrew 
word saris came to acquire the secondary sense of "chamber- 
lain," or any officer of the court, is found in the fact that 
in one of the books of the Bible of most recent date (1 Chron. 
28: 1), composed probably at the time of the Babylonish cap- 
tivity, or yet later (see 1 Chron. 3: 19 — 21),* "eunuchs" are 
mentioned — ("chamberlains" in the Modern Spanish Version, 
"officers" in. the English Versions) among the principal men of 
the court of David; and we can hardly bring ourselves to be- 
lieve that this infamous institution of Oriental courts, in- 
troduced probably under the reign of Solomon, with his "seven 
hundred wives and three hundred concubines" (1 Kings 11: 3), 
was known in Israel in the days of David. 

We cannot tell what may have been the offence of these 
officers of Pharaoh. They were not ordinary prisoners, but 
state prisoners; and as it was so that their respective offices 
had to do more immediately with the person of the king, they 
were probably of the privileged classes of the kingdom, and of 
noble families. 

40: 5 — 19. THE BUTLEB AND THE BAKEB OF THE KING DBEAM 
DBEAMS, AND JOSEPH INTEBPEETS THEM. (1717 B. C.) 

5 And they dreamed a dream both of them, each man his dream, 
in one night, each man according to the interpretation of his dream, 
the butler and the baker of the king of Egypt, who were bound in 
the prison. 

6 And Joseph came unto them in the morning, and saw them, 
and, behold, they were sad. 

7 And he asked Pharaoh's officers that were with him in ward in 
his. master's house, saying, Wherefore look ye so sad to-day? 

8 And they said unto him, We have dreamed a dream, and there 
is none that can interpret it. And Joseph said unto them. Do not 
interpretations belong to God? tell it me, I pray you. 

9 And the chief butler told his dream to Joseph, and said to him. 
In my dream, behold, a vine was before me ; 









CHAPTER 40: 5—19 451 

10 and in the vine were three branches : and it was as though it 
budded, and its blossoms shot forth ; and the clusters thereof brought 
forth ripe grapes : 

11 and Pharaoh's cup was in my hand ; and I took the grapes, 
and pressed them into Pharaoh's cup, and I gave the cup into 
Pharaoh's hand. 

12 And Joseph said unto him, This is the interpretation of it : 
the three branches are three days ; 

13 within yet three days shall Pharaoh lift up thy head, and 
restore thee unto thine office : and thou shalt give Pharaoh's cup into 
his hand, after the former manner when thou wast his butler. 

14 But have me in thy remembrance when it shall be well with 
thee, and show kindness, I pray thee, unto me, and make mention 
of me unto Pharaoh, and bring me out of this house : 

15 for indeed I was stolen away out of the land of the Hebrews : 
and here also have I done nothing that they should put me into the 
dungeon. 

16 When the chief baker saw that the interpretation was good, 
he said unto Joseph, I also was in my dream, and, behold, three 
baskets of white bread were on my head : 

17 and in the uppermost basket there was of all manner of baked 
food for Pharaoh ; and the birds did eat them out of the basket upon 
my head. 

18 And Joseph answered and said, This is the interpretation there- 
of : the three baskets are three days ; 

19 within yet three days shall Pharaoh lift up thy head from off 
thee, and shall hang thee on a tree; and the birds shall eat thy flesh 
from off thee. 

Dreams, in those days in which there was no written reve- 
lation, and when God often revealed himself by means of them 
(Num. 12: 6), performed a very important part in the life of 
Joseph, as we have seen, and shall continue to see. With re- 
gard to a prophet who was such by office, the case was very 
clear; the prophet had as intimate knowledge and security 
of the fact, when God spoke to him in dreams, as when he 
spoke to him in any other way. In the case of those who 
were not prophets, a deep and lively impression, accompanied 
by an insatiable desire to understand the dream, might well 
serve the divine purpose; which in this case was to open 
the way for the liberation and promotion of Joseph. In the 
case of Pharaoh, in the following chapter (ch. 41: 8), the Hebrew 
text may be literally translated, "in the morning his spirit was 
pounded," as by the blows of a hammer; that is, was agitated 
and troubled. 

We see in vrs. 6 and 7 a proof of Joseph's zealous fulfilment 
of his new duties, as the keeper of the prison, and a proof of 
his humane spirit, in the interest he manifested in the wel- 
fare of every one of the prisoners committed to his care, and 
in his anxiety to alleviate the painful concern which at any 
time he noticed in their troubled faces. We do not know 
whether Joseph possessed the gift of interpreting those notable 
dreams of his own when he dreamed them (ch. 37: 5 — 11); it 



452 GENESIS 

is probable that he had a strong suspicion of their meaning 
when he related them to his father and brothers, and that 
this softened or removed the appearance of self-conceit, or 
presumption, which his conduct might otherwise wear to us; 
but in the years of his long affliction and of his unjust im- 
prisonment, it is certain that the spirit of inspiration would 
open to him the meaning of his own dreams, for his comfort 
and support; and this would give him greater confidence to 
interpret the dreams of others; it is hardly possible that he 
should have the gift of interpreting the dreams of others, with- 
out being able to penetrate the meaning of his own. To these 
dreams the Psalmist probably refers in Ps. 105: 19: 

"Until the time that his word was fulfilled, 
the promise of Jehovah tried his (faith)." 

— Mod. Span. Vers. 

However that may be, God communicated to him on this 
occasion the greatest assurance, not only that "interpretations 
belong unto God," but that God had imparted to him the gift of 
interpreting them with infallible certainty. The dream of each 
of the two had to do with his peculiar office; and from them 
any person moderately clever would be able to draw a specious 
meaning. The merit of the thing consisted in drawing from 
them a true and certain sense, and in declaring it with a con- 
fidence which is born of absolute assurance. This Joseph had, 
and when the butler declared to him his dream, he without 
hesitation told him that his dream signified that within three 
days Pharaoh would show him his former favor, so that he would 
be restored to his old place of honor and confidence; and Joseph 
did not lose the opportunity of charging him that in the day 
of such good fortune to himself, he should not forget the He- 
brew prisoner, but make favorable mention of him before the 
king, and have him taken out of that dungeon where he so un- 
justly suffered. 

The chief of the bakers, who was listening with hungry 
soul to this beautiful interpretation, took confidence from it to 
relate with freedom his dream; but a cruel undeceiving awaited 
the poor man. In both cases "to lift up the head" means to say 
to distinguish some individuals among the rest, or to bestow 
on him a special attention, whether for good or for evil (vr. 
20) ; so that in the one case it was for good to the butler, 
but in the other it was to bring capital punishment on the 
baker. Nevertheless, in vr. 19 "he shall lift up thy head from 
off thee" seems to carry in it the idea of to take away, and 



CHAPTER 40: 20—23 453 

thus would seem to imply decapitation, before the body was 
hung on the tree. The words of Joseph seem to us very hard 
and dry, in making so heart-rending an announcement; but 
It is that the Bible does not make use of those embellishments 
and delicate shadings of thought which are so necessary in 
merely human writings; and we may be sure that Joseph, who 
looked so humanely after his prisoners, and hastened to dis- 
sipate any shadow which he saw on their troubled faces, would 
not fail to give to this unfortunate man the comfort and sympathy 
of which his case admitted. 

[Note 28. — On the use of wine in Egypt. At a time not very 
remote unbelievers and infidels declared this story to be false, 
confidently alleging that the vine and grapes were not known 
in Egypt; but since that time the representations that are 
found on the monuments of Egypt have come to confirm the 
exact correctness of the Bible, furnishing us as they do with 
pictorial proofs that the vine and its fruit abounded there. 
With equal lack of reason, some would draw from vrs. 9, 10, 11, 
that in Egypt wine was unknown, and that even kings drank 
only the juice of the grape newly expressed by the cupbearer. 
But the proof alleged is aside from the truth. From the days 
of Noah (ch. 9: 20, 21), and probably before that, the art of 
converting grapes into wine was well known; and the monu- 
ments of Egypt present us with pictures vividly portraying 
not only vines and grapes, but wine-presses also, and men who 
trod the grapes with their feet, to express the juice, for the 
purpose of making wine. See Smith's Bible Dictionary; Articles 
on the Vine and Wine.] 

40: 20 — 23. the outcome of the case on the third day. 

20 And it came to pass the third day, which was Pharaoh's birth- 
day, that he made a feast unto all his servants : and he lifted up the 
head of the chief butler and the head of the chief baker among his 
servants. 

21 And he restored the chief butler unto his butlership again ; and 
he gave the cup into Pharaoh's hand : 

22 but he hanged the chief baker : as Joseph had interpreted to 
them. 

23 Yet did not the chief butler remember Joseph, but forgat him. 

As Joseph had interpreted the dreams, so it happened on 
the birthday of Pharaoh, which occurred three days afterwards. 
It is interesting to observe here the first notice that we have 
in the Bible of the observance of birthday celebrations. 

The chief of the butlers, nevertheless, in his day of good 
fortune, forgot Joseph, or at least he regarded it as convenient 
to risk nothing of the good which he had, in order to do a 



454 GENESIS 

favor to an unfortunate fellow. That is to say, he icas politic 
— a policy which is much in vogue till today, among those who 
regard themselves as "knowing much of the world." So selfish 
is the human heart! Joseph without doubt, in those two years 
of misfortune which followed this disappointed hope, many 
a time reproached the forgetfulness and ingratitude of Pharaoh's 
chief butler; but if he had done his utmost to liberate Joseph, 
and, as a man of influence, had obtained his purpose and se- 
cured a place of honor and profit for Joseph in the court of 
Pharaoh, Jacob's pious son would no doubt have received it 
as a signal mercy which his God had granted him; but the 
Joseph of sacred history would never have come on the stage 
of action; his part in the drama of Divine Providence would 
have been spoiled! If one year, or one month, or even one 
day before the time appointed by God for the realization of 
his plans, Joseph had obtained justice and favor, he would 
have passed into oblivion. The most glorious distinction of 
Joseph was that he performed just the part to which God 
had destined him. Let us learn the lesson. 

"It is good to hope, and silently to wait for the salvation of 
Jehovah." Lam. 3: 26. Mod. Span. Version. 

CHAPTER XLI. 

VRS. 1 — 7. TWO YEAES AFTERWARDS, PHARAOH ALSO DREAMS DREAMS. 

(1715 B. C.) 

1 And it came to pass at the end of two full years, that Pharaoh 
dreamed : and, behold, he stood by the river. 

2 And, behold, there came up out of the river seven kine, well- 
favored and fat-fleshed ; and they fed in the reed-grass. 

3 And, behold, seven other kine came up after them out of the 
river, ill-favored and lean-fleshed, and stood by the other kine upon 
the brink of the river. 

4 And the ill-favored and lean-fleshed kine did eat up the seven 
well-favored and fat kine. So Pharaoh awoke. 

5 And he slept and dreamed a second time : and, behold, seven 
ears of grain came up upon one stalk, rank and good. 

G And behold, seven ears, thin and blasted with the east wind, 
sprung up after them. 

7 And the thin ears swallowed up the seven rank and full ears. 
And Pharaoh awoke, and, behold, it was a dream. 

In the designs of God time is always an indispensable ele- 
ment, and long patience and imperturbable confidence is most 
necessary on the part of those who have faith in him. Jesus our 
Lord had for a favorite aphorism of his: "Mine hour is not yet 
come." John 2:4; 7:6. 

But at last came the hour of favor for Joseph. Pharaoh had 



CHAPTER 41: 1—7 455 

two dreams, and there was no one to interpret them. In this 
case as in the former, a quick and penetrating genius would 
have been able to draw from such striking dreams something 
that would wear the semblance of truth; but to trifle with the 
credulity of the king would have been as dangerous to him, 
as to fail in their office was to the wise men of Nebuchad- 
nezzar. Dan. 2: 9. What the king asked was truth, and not 
specious words. Meanwhile the faith and patience of Joseph, 
his self-control and above all his triumphant faith in Jehovah, 
the God of his fathers and his prompt and affectionate obedience 
to his word were gradually unfolding, and constantly strength- 
ening and forming him for the elevated position to which he 
was destined; a position and office which demanded qualities 
of mind and heart which were not yet his, except in em*- 
bryo. 

"The Nile is Egypt," as has been well said. The country 
is a complete desert, from unknown ages, with only a narrow 
strip of very fertile land on both sides of the river, bounded 
by rocky mountains and deserts; and annually the inunda- 
tions of the Nile (which last three or four months), caused by 
the rains that fall and the snows that melt in Central Africa, 
leave a very thin deposit of alluvial soil, with abundant humidity, 
on lands which would otherwise be a sterile sand-bed. The 
gradual rise of the waters, due to the enormous distance from 
which they come (for it does not rain in Egypt), prevents the 
inundations from becoming freshets which would desolate and 
destroy the land. When there are copious rains in Central 
Africa, the Nile rises sufficiently to inundate that narrow strip 
on both sides of the river, and the crops are superabundant; 
but when the waters fail, the Nile does not overflow its banks, 
and there is neither seed-sowing nor harvest. In lower Egypt, 
the river is divided into numerous branches, and discharges 
its waters into the Mediterranean Sea, through many mouths. 
There was necessarily much reed-grass in the low and marshy 
places; which forms the back-ground for Pharaoh's first dream. 

So Pharaoh's first dream had to do with cows coming out 
of the river, and they fed in the reed-grass; seven of them, 
beautiful, sleek and loaded with flesh; and after them seven 
other cows, which came up out of the river also, ill-favored and 
lean-fleshed to the last degree, and they ate up the seven first 
fat cows, without improving in the least their own leanness. 
Both kinds came up out of the river, not because this is the 
usage of cows, but because the years of good and bad har- 
vests which they represented, depended entirely on the river. 



456 GENESIS 

The second dream had to do with wheat, the principal prod- 
uct of Egypt, which was formerly called the granary of Italy. 
This kind of wheat is still found in Egypt — seven heads on 
a single stem. Pharaoh saw in his dream seven extremely beau- 
tiful heads which came up on the same stalk, or stem (it 
is said to have a solid stem), and after them seven other 
heads, dry and empty; which ate up the seven good heads. 
It is not the usage of cows to eat cows, nor still less of heads 
of wheat to eat heads of wheat; but in this consisted the 
peculiarity of the dreams which most attracted the attention of 
the king; and it filled him with impatience and concern to know 
what significance so singular a double dream might have. 

41: 8—13. AS THE KING COULD NOT FIND ANY INTERPRETER OF HIS 
DREAMS, THE FORGETFUL BUTLER REMEMBERS JOSEPH, AND MAKES 
MENTION OF HIM TO PHARAOH. 

8 And it came to pass in the morning that his spirit was troubled ; 
and he sent and called for all the magicians of Egypt, and all the 
wise men thereof : and Pharaoh told them his dream ; but there was 
none that could interpret them unto Pharaoh. 

9 Then spake the chief butler unto Pharaoh, saying, I do remem- 
ber my faults this day : 

10 Pharaoh was wroth with his servants, and put me in ward 
in the house of the captain of the guard, me and the chief baker: 

11 and we dreamed a dream in one night, I and he ; we dreamed 
each man according to the interpretation of his dream. 

12 And there was with us there a young man, a Hebrew, servant 
to the captain of the guard ; and we told him, and he interpreted to 
us our dreams ; to each man according to his dream he did interpret. 

13 And it came to pass, as he interpreted to us, so it was ; me ha 
restored unto mine office, and him he hanged. 

The two dreams evidently pointed to the same event, and 
It would have been easy for the wise men of Egypt to Invent 
some explanation which would have been at least plausible 
■(as Nebuchadnezzar accused the wise men of Babylon of wish- 
ing to do in like circumstances, Dan. 2: 9); but either by the 
particular providence of God they could not agree upon any- 
thing worth while repeating, or, as is more probable, they 
did not dare to venture on conjectures where the king demanded 
certain knowledge; so that the forgetful butler of Pharaoh 
came to himself, and related what had passed with Joseph 
In the prison, two years before, and the facility and exactness 
with which Joseph had interpreted his dream and that of his 
unfortunate companion. Here we see the hand of that special 
Providence which reserved this information for the opportune 
moment, making use of the culpable forgetfulness, or the 
cowardly negligence, of the chief butler for that purpose. 



CHAPTER 41: 14—24 457 

41: 14 — 24. Joseph is called, and pharaoh belates to him his 

DREAMS. (1715 B. C.) 

14 Then Pharaoh sent and called Joseph, and they brought him 
hastily out of the dungeon : and he shaved himself, and changed his 
raiment, and came in unto Pharaoh. 

15 And Pharaoh said unto Joseph, I have dreamed a dream, and 
there is none that can interpret it : and I have heard say of thee, 
that when thou hearest a dream thou canst interpret it. 

16 And Joseph answered Pharaoh, saying, It is not in me : 
God will give Pharaoh an answer of peace. 

17 And Pharaoh spake unto Joseph, In my dream, behold, I 
stood upon the brink of the river : 

18 and, behold, there came up out of the river seven kine, fat- 
fleshed and well-favored ; and they fed in the reed-grass : 

19 and, behold, seven other kine came up after them, poor and 
very ill-favored and lean-fleshed, such as I never saw in all the land 
of Egypt for badness : 

20 and the lean and ill-favored kine did eat up the first seven fat 
kine : 

21 and when they had eaten them up, it could not be known that 
they had eaten them ; but they were still ill-favored, as at the be- 
ginning. So I awoke. 

22 And I saw in my dream, and, behold, seven ears came up upon 
one stalk, full and good : 

23 and, behold, seven ears, withered, thin, and blasted with the 
east wind, sprung up after them : 

24 and the thin ears swallowed up the seven good ears : and I 
told it unto the magicians : but there was none that could declare it 
to me. 

With all baste Joseph was called from the prison, or dungeon, 
and having shaved and changed his garments, he was presented 
before Pharaoh. The particular notice of shaving, something 
entirely foreign to the habits of the ancient Hebrews, furnishes 
us with an incidental proof of the minute accuracy of this 
history, according to the testimony of the monuments of Egypt 
today; where the Asiatics are represented with beards, and 
the Egyptians, and the foreigners admitted to their service, 
are clean-shaved, leaving their hair and beard to grow only 
when they were in mourning. The king informed Joseph that 
he had had dreams which his wise men could not interpret; 
but that he had been informed of him that he possessed the 
faculty of interpreting dreams. Joseph answered him that 
such a faculty did not reside in him, but that God would give 
to Pharaoh an answer of peace. What calls attention in all 
this procedure on Joseph's part, both in the case of Pharaoh 
and in that of his two officers, is the absolute certainty he had 
that God was speaking by his means, in interpreting these 
dreams, which were so important in the history of Joseph, 
and as bearing on the cause and kingdom of God in this world; 
and in this we see the spirit of prophecy which had been given 
him. There was no place here for conjectures and calculation 



*458 GENESIS 

of probabilities. If the dream was of God, it is clear that 
from him also must come the correct interpretation; for it 
was not given as a matter of guesswork, or a solution of 
riddles. 

41: 25 — 36. Joseph interprets the dreams of pharaoh, and 
with equal confidence gives him, unasked, advice adequate 
to the occasion. (1715 b. c.) 

25 And Joseph said unto Pharaoh, The dream of Pharaoh is one : 

what God is about to do he hath declared unto Pharaoh. 

26 The seven good kine are seven years ; and the seven good 
ears are seven years : the dream is one. 

27 And the seven lean and ill-favored kine that came up after 
them are seven years, and also the seven empty ears blasted with 
the east wind; they shall be seven years of famine. 

28 That is the thing which I spake unto Pharaoh: what God is 
about to do he hath showed unto Pharaoh. 

29 Behold, there come seven years of great plenty throughout all 
the land of Egypt : 

30 and there shall arise after them seven years of famine ; and 
all the plenty shall be forgotten in the land of Egypt ; and the famine 
shall consume the land ; 

31 and the plenty shall not be known in the land by reason of that 
famine which followeth ; for it shall be very grievous. 

32 And for that the dream was doubled unto Pharaoh, it is be- 
cause the thing is established by God, and God will shortly bring it 
to pass. 

33 Now therefore let Pharaoh look out a man discreet and wise, 
and set him over the land of Egypt. 

34 Let Pharaoh do this, and let him appoint overseers over the 
land, and take up the fifth part of. the land of Egypt in the seven 
plenteous years. 

35 And let them gather all the food of these good years that 
come, and lay up grain under the hand of Pharaoh for food in the 
cities, and let them keep it. 

36 And the food shall be for a store to the land against the seven 
years of famine, which shall be in the land of Egypt ; that the land 
perish not through the famine. 

Joseph well knew with whom he had to do, and that to deal 
in conjectures with a king of Egypt would cost him his life, 
as soon as the fraud was detected; but with absolute confidence 
that he possessed the truth, he interpreted the dreams as a 
revelation of things to come which, for the purpose of secur- 
ing important ends, God wished to make known to Pharaoh. 
Joseph could not perceive the real object of all this, as we see 
it, nor in all his life did he come to see it in its entirety and in 
its proper relations; nor was it necessary that he should so 
see it; but he saw that it was the hand of God, although ha 
could not at that moment see anything beyond the divine pur- 
pose of forewarning the king of an enormous calamity which 
was about to come upon the country, in order that he might 
in good season take suitable measures to prevent the utter 






CHAPTER 41: 37— 46 459 

ruin of Egypt. Joseph was very far from imagining that the 
family of his father Jacob was more important to God, and 
to his kingdom in this lost world, than all the riches and 
greatness of Pharoah and his country. The same thing hap- 
pens today; we see only that part of the web of divine providence 
which lies immediately before us. 

Such years of abundance and of famine were well known 
in Egypt, although nothing was then known of the cause of the 
rising and falling of the river which made them. The annals 
of Egypt relate many such events; but in this case the special 
providence consisted in making it known beforehand, with the 
purpose that Jacob and his family might leave the pastoral 
life of Canaan, and settle for several centuries in the most 
civilized country of the world; there to be formed into a nation, 
and educated and trained in everything necessary to their 
taking possession of the country which God had given to 
Abraham. So Joseph not only interpreted the dreams, but did 
so with such conviction of the truth and certainty of the 
interpretation, that he passed at once, and without a semblance 
of presumption, to give such advice as was most suitable to 
the occasion; this being as truly inspired as the interpretation 
of the dreams. Who but God was able to know beforehand 
the succession of seven years of unexampled abundance, fol- 
lowed by seven more years of famine, due wholly to super- 
abundant rains, or the lack of them, in the interior of Africa, 
3000 or 4000 miles away from Pharaoh and his court? 

41: 37 — 46. pharaoh and his princes approve and sanction both 
joseph's interpretation and his advice,* and he is placed 
over all the land of egypt, to carry into effect his own 
counsel. (1715 b. c.) 

37 And the thing was good in the eyes of Pharaoh, and in the 
eyes of all his servants. 

38 And Pharaoh said to his servants, Can we find such a one 
as this, a man in whom the spirit of God is? • 

39 And Pharaoh said unto Joseph, Forasmuch as God hath showed 
thee all this, there is none so discreet and wise as thou : 

40 thou shalt be over my house, and according unto thy word 
shall all my people be ruled : only in the throne will I be greater 
than thou. 

41 And Pharaoh said unto Joseph, See, I have set thee over all 
the land of Egypt. 

42 And Pharaoh took off his signet ring from his hand, and 
put it upon Joseph's hand, and arrayed him in vestures of fine 
linen, and put a gold chain about his neck ; 

43 and he made him to ride in the second chariot which he had ; 
and they cried before him, Bow the knee : and he set him over all the 
land of Egypt. 

44 And Pharaoh said unto Joseph, I am Pharaoh, and without 



460 GENESIS 

thee shall no man lift up his hand or his foot in all the land of Egypt. 

45 And Pharaoh called Joseph's name Zaphenath-paneah ; and he 
gave him to wife Asenath, the daughter of Poti-phera priest of On. 
And Joseph went out over the land of Egypt. 

46 And Joseph was thirty years old when he stood before 
Pharaoh king of Egypt. And Joseph went out from the presence 
of Pharaoh, and went throughout all the land of Egypt. 

That same divine influence which guided Joseph, co-operated 
also to predispose Pharaoh's mind and that of his counsellors 
to believe the announcement and accept the counsel given; 
and this with as much confidence and security as had been 
granted to Joseph. It is certain that, as the years of abundance 
came first, if that part of the prediction had failed, which 
Joseph made in relation thereto, it would have cost him his 
position and perhaps his life; but this kind of guarantee it 
seems did not enter into the calculations of the king and his 
princes. God had his own plans to carry into effect, and the 
means were not wanting to fulfil them. 

"As the (irrigating) streams of water, 
so is the heart of the king in the hand of the Lord; 
whithersoever [or to whatsover] he will he turneth it." 

Prov. 21: 1. M. S. V. 

Pharaoh, therefore, with the approbation of his "servants" (who 
were no other than the most distinguished princes of his 
court and kingdom), appointed Joseph governor of all the land 
of Egypt, and endowed him with ample power to carry into 
effect the measures which he himself had advised, referring 
it all to God; in the security that, as God had given him to 
know so much, he would likewise attend him with strength 
and wisdom to put it into execution. He changed his name, 
and converted the Hebrew slave into an Egyptian prince. The 
signification of his new name is doubtful. The rabbins under- 
stand that it is a Hebrew word, and signifies "Revealer of 
what is secret"; others understand that it is an Egyptian word, 
and others still that it is Coptic, and signifies "Saviour of the 
world," or "Upholder of the age." 

He at once appointed him as his prime minister, and governor 
of all the land of Egypt; and taking off from his hand his 
signet ring, he gave it to Joseph; thus clothing with his royal 
authority all Joseph's edicts and providences; the seal of 
Pharaoh being really his official signature, in those days in 
which the art of writing was limited to a small number of 
persons; for which reason the seal was ordinarily carried se- 
cured to the owner's person by a cord, as in the case of Judah 
(ch. 38: 18, 25); or engraved on a signet ring, which was car- 



CHAPTER 41: 37— 46 461 

ried on the finger, as here. Comp. Esth. 3: 10; 8:2, 8, 10. He 
clothed him with a vesture of fine white linen, in a style suit- 
able to his elevated rank, and put a golden chain about his 
neck, and made him to ride forth in the second chariot of 
state which he had, in order that he might go abroad with 
public acknowledgment into all parts of the country, making 
proclamation before him: "Bow the knee!" placing him thus 
over all the land of Egypt. In this sudden and unlooked-for 
way was the elevation of Joseph effected by the particular provi- 
dence of God, in whose hand are the hearts of men, to turn 
them to the fulfilment of his high designs; as the husbandman, 
in irrigating his land, turns the streams of water, with his 
hoe or with his foot, to any part that he pleases. In the same 
way, and quite as suddenly, Mordecai the Jew was elevated in 
the court of the Ahasuerus, king of Persia, when God wished 
to protect his people, and defend the cause of his kingdom 
in the world, at the very time that the impious Haman had 
everything arranged for their complete extermination. When 
any great emergency calls for it, God still moves and directs 
the hearts and counsels of men in the most surprising way; 
as in these days of the Boxer uprising (Sept. to Nov. 1900) he 
is doing it to prevent the destruction of his cause in the great 
Chinese Empire. 

The infidels and unbelievers who say that all this is a tissue 
of incredible stories, and that no king would be capable of 
acting in this manner, do but expose their ignorance (or for- 
getfulness) of the usages of the despotic kings of the East. 
Instead of being incredible, these things are entirely in keeping 
with many undeniable facts, and are so true to Oriental life, 
that the poets and inventors of stories and rehearsers of legends 
among the Turks and Arabians delight in just this class of sud- 
den transformations; as any one may see for himself in the 
"Thousand and one Nights" 

But even so, Pharaoh well knew that this sudden outburst 
of enthusiastic consent to the elevation of Joseph could not 
of itself last long; and that to see a man of thirty years of 
age, a foreigner, and an ex-slave also, taken out of the prison 
to rule over princes, would ultimately cause such a storm of 
opposition that even the absolute power of a Pharaoh would 
not be sufficient to render Joseph's position secure in such a 
charge. He took care, therefore, to marry him into the most 
distinguished and powerful family in his kingdom, that of the 
priest-prince of On (called Heliopolis by the Greeks). The 
name of this priest is so much like that of Joseph's former 



462 GENESIS 

master, that some have brought themselves to believe that it 
was into his family that Pharaoh made the ex-slave to marry; 
but if the names are similar, the offices were so different that 
one and the same person could not fill them both; even if Potiphar 
had a family of his own. 

Joseph therefore, at the age of thirty, was constituted governor 
of the land of Egypt, second only to Pharaoh himself; and 
he drove forth in his chariot of state, as one who was in com- 
mand of the whole kingdom. Then began to bring forth profit- 
able and plentiful fruit those thirteen years of trial through 
which Joseph had passed, since he went out from the home of 
his father, and of those lessons in the art of government which 
he had learned first as a steward, and then as keeper (for 
such he was in fact) of a prison. Let the reader see all this 
as poetically set forth in Ps. 105: 16—22. 

41: 47 — 49. the seven years of abundant harvests. (From 
1715 to 1708 b. c.) 

47 And in the seven plenteous years the earth brought forth by 
handfuls. 

48 And he gathered up all the food of the seven years which were 
in the land ,of Egypt, and laid up the food in the cities : the food of 
the field, which was round about every city, laid he up in the same. 

49 And Joseph laid up grain as the sand of the sea, very much, 
until he left off numbering ; for it was without number. 

The seven years of extraordinary abundance began at once; 
but instead of wasting the produce of the land, or selling it 
to the countries around, Joseph began without loss of time to 
gather up and store the fifth part of it, arranging that every 
city should serve as a place of deposit for the harvest of the 
fields around it. In order to do this, a firm hand was necessary, 
a faith in the divine oracle that was proof against all tempta- 
tion, and a very deep conviction of the necessity that would 
arise for all of this store of food; because it was gathered up 
in such vast quantities that it might well have come to be 
esteemed of little value. These treasuries of grain kept perfectly 
in that singularly dry climate of Egypt, with its burning deserts 
on each side of the narrow strip of fertile land that bordered on 
the river. 

With regard to the right which Pharaoh had to take the fifth 
part of the produce of the land in those seven years of abundance, 
that was entirely in keeping with the despotic government of 
the time and country, where there was no law except the ar- 
bitrary will of the king; but the remaining four-fifths was so 
abundant that nobody would miss the one-fifth part, which they 



CHAPTER 41: 50—52 463 

all understood was gathered and deposited for the coming years 
of famine. The rich and well-to-do might imitate Pharaoh up 
to a certain point, in laying up grain for the time of need; 
hut without that general providence of the king, the people of 
the country would soon have perished with hunger, once the 
famine set in. 

41: 50 — 52. the family of joseph. (Between 1715 and 1708 b. c.) 

50 And unto Joseph were born two sons before the year of famine 
came, whom Asenath, the daughter of Poti-phera priest of On, bare 
unto him. 

51 And Joseph called the name of the first-born Manasseh : For, 
said he, God hath made me forget all my toil, and all my father's 
house. 

52 And the name of the second called he Ephraim : For God 
hath made me fruitful in the land of my affliction. 

Before the years of the famine began, the daughter of Potiphera 
had borne to Joseph two sons, to wit, Manasseh and Ephraim, 
both of whom served in their very names as remembrancers of 
the signal mercies of God, as seen in the changed fortunes of 
Joseph. This pious custom was very common in the days of 
the Old Testament; but such is the perversity of human nature, 
that in most cases it came to be little better than a profanation 
of holy things; and many of the most villainous wretches made 
this vain show of pious names. 

41 : 53 — 57. the seven yeaes of famine began to come. ( 1708 b. c.) 

53 And the seven years of plenty, that was in the land of 
Egypt, came to an end. 

54 And the seven years of famine began to come, according as 
Joseph had said : and there was famine in all lands ; but in all the 
land of Egypt there was bread. 

55 And when all the land of Egypt was famished, the people 
cried to Pharaoh for bread : and Pharaoh said unto all the Egyptians, 
Go unto Joseph ; what he saith to you, do. 

56 And the famine was over all the face of the earth : and 
Joseph opened all the store-houses, and sold unto the Egyptians; and 
the famine was sore in the land of Egypt. 

57 And all countries came into Egypt to Joseph to buy grain, 
because the famine was sore in all the earth. 

The prediction of Joseph, when he interpreted the dreams 
of the king, continued to fulfil itself year after year for seven 
consecutive years; but when they ceased, and the years of 
famine began to come, the last vestige of doubt was removed 
from the most incredulous mind. The Nile did not rise at 
its proper season, the customary inundations did not come, 
and the seed-sowing could not be made, because in Egypt it 
does not rain; and every hope of a harvest depends on the 
inundation (which for three or four months of the year over- 



464 GENESIS 

flows the harvest land), and of necessary consequence there was 
no harvest: and this happened year after year for the space 
of seven years; although it is possible that when the providential 
design had been accomplished, the famine became less rigorous 
toward the conclusion of the seven years, until at last the cus- 
tomary rains again fell in Central Africa, followed by the 
rise of the river, the inundations of the land, and the abundant 
harvests of former years; for Egypt was always celebrated for 
its abundant harvests, and was called, as has been said, "the 
granary of Italy." 

The reader should remember that as in Egypt it does not 
rain (except very rarely, and that along the coast of the 
Mediterranean Sea), and those waters come a distance of 2,000, 
3,000 and even 4,000 miles, the rise of the river is very gradual, 
in proportion as the rainy season in the interior sets in; so 
that there never is "a freshet" in the river. On the contrary, 
the waters of the river rise constantly and gently, and remain 
flooding the lands for several months; and in many cases the 
land is sown upon the surface of the waters (Eccl. 11: 1), 
leaving the seed to be covered by the alluvial soil which is 
deposited from the turbid waters of the river. At the end 
of the time of the inundations, the waters fall as gradually 
and gently as they had risen. Meanwhile the people occupy 
the cities and villages built on the hills and elevated lands (nat- 
ural or artificial) of each district. 

This famine was general in all the surrounding countries. 
If there had been grass and good harvests in the land of Canaan, 
Jacob and his family would never have removed to Egypt: to 
effect that removal was the principal object of the special provi- 
dence which sent Joseph there before them. To answer this 
purpose it was not necessary that the famine in Canaan should 
last as long as in Egypt; but it was necessary that Joseph 
should be able to say to his brethren that the famine would 
last five years longer, in order that they should not excuse them- 
selves from seeking an asylum in Egypt. Ch. 45: 6. 

CHAPTER XLII. 

VRS. 1 — 4. THE BRETHREN OF JOSEPH GO DOWN TO EGYPT TO BUT 

GRAIN. (1707 B. C.) 

1 Now Jacob saw that there was grain in Egypt, and Jacob said 
unto his sons, Why do ye look one upon another? 

2 And he said, Behold, I have heard that there is grain in 
Egypt : get you down thither, and buy for us from thence ; that we 
may live, and not die, 



CHAPTER 42: 5—20 465 

3 And Joseph's ten brethren went down to buy grain from 
Egypt. 

4. But Benjamin, Joseph's brother, Jacob sent not with his 
brethren ; for he said, Lest peradventure harm befall him. 

About two years (ch. 45: 6) of the famine had passed, and 
not only in Egypt, but in Canaan also, the resources of the 
people were exhausted. In doubt and uncertainty as to what 
they should do, the sons of Jacoh, in the expressive language 
of vr. 1, stood idly looking at each other. They had intelligence 
that there was grain in Egypt, for many from Canaan were 
going down there to buy. Jacob and his sons were rich, and 
their supply of provisions would last longer still; but although 
they could forsee the inevitable, they yet hesitated. Jacob re- 
proached them with their irresolution, and they at last re- 
solved to go without longer delay. The ten older sons went 
down to Egypt; for Jacob would not consent that Benjamin, 
the only relic of his mother, the beloved Rachel, should go with 
them, for fear that some harm might befall him there. 

42: 5 — 20. Joseph and his brethren. (1707 b. c.) 

5 And the sons of Israel came to buy among those that came : for 
the famine was in the land of Canaan. 

6 And Joseph was the governor over the land ; he it was that 
sold to all the people of the land. And Joseph's brethren came, and 
bowed down themselves to him with their faces to the earth. 

7 And Joseph saw his brethren, and he knew them, but made 
himself strange unto them, and spake roughly with them ; and he 
said unto them, Whence come ye? And they said, Prom the land of 
Canaan to buy food. 

8 And Joseph knew his brethren, but they knew not him. 

9 And Joseph remembered the dreams which he dreamed of them, 
and said unto them, Ye are spies : to see the nakedness of the land 
ye are come. 

10 And they said unto him, Nay, my lord, but to buy food are thy 
servants come. 

11 We are all one man's sons ; we are true men, thy servants are 
no spies. 

12 And he said unto them, Nay, but to see the nakedness of the 
land ye are come. 

13 And they said, We thy servants are twelve brethren, the 
sons of one man in the land of Canaan ; and, behold, the youngest 
is this day with our father, and one is not. 

14 And Joseph said unto them, That is it that I spake unto you, 
saying, Ye are spies : 

15 hereby ye shall be proved : by the life of Pharaoh ye shall 
not go forth hence, except your youngest brother come hither. 

16 Send one of you, and let him fetch your brother, and ye shall 
be bound, that your words may be proved, whether there be truth in 
you : or else by the life of Pharaoh surely ye are spies. 

17 And he put them all together into ward three days. 

18 And Joseph said unto them the third day, This do, and live ; 
for I fear God : 

19 if ye be true men, let one of your brethren be bound in your 
prison-house ; but go ye, carry grain for the famine of your houses : 



466 GENESIS 

20 and bring your youngest brother unto me ; so shall your words 
be verified, and ye shall not die. And they did so. 

In the midst of many others who were coming from Canaan 
and other countries, the brothers of Joseph also came; and 
he knew them. The grain was deposited in all the cities of 
the country (ch. 41: 48), and there it was sold to the people 
of the land; but these men came from foreign parts, and, as 
foreigners, it was necessary for them to appear before the 
governor, and give an account of themselves, and obtain his 
permission to traffic in the country. Vrs. 9, 13, 34. Thus it 
was easy and even unavoidable that Joseph should see his 
brothers when they came the first time; yet he was expect- 
ing their coming, because from the many who were going down 
to Egypt, he had learned that the famine was severe in Canaan. 
So he knew them at once, and doubtless he had already arranged 
the plan which he would pursue with them. He took good 
care that it should not in any wise dawn on them that he 
knew them; and he therefore spoke with them through an in- 
terpreter, and affected towards them a harshness which he did 
not feel; treating them as spies from foreign parts, who had 
come to search out the defenceless condition of the country, at a 
time of such rigorous famine. Their humble prostration at 
his feet, when they presented themselves before him, reminded 
him of the dreams he had dreamed about them — that of the 
sheaves, and of the sun and moon and eleven stars (ch. 37: 5 — 
11); the lively recollection of which rendered necessary the tone 
of severity which he affected, in order not to discover him- 
self. Before this time Egypt had been invaded from Asia, and 
a dynasty called that of the "Hyksos," or the "Shepherd Kings," 
had seized upon the throne; and it is believed that the reigning 
dynasty in the days of Joseph was that of these usurping 
Asiatics. The accusation, therefore, which Joseph made against 
his brethren, that they were spies, who were perhaps preparing 
another invasion of the country in that calamitous time, was 
the most serious that could be laid against them. Defending 
themselves against the accusation of being spies, which might 
have brought upon them the most terrible consequences, they 
related enough of their family history to put again to the 
proof all the self-command of Joseph. It is to be noticed that 
they were careful not to say that Joseph was dead, although 
the words "is not" ordinarily had that meaning; as in Jer. 
31: 15 and Matt. 2: 18; but it is clear that it does not have 
that sense in vr. 36, with regard to Simeon, whom their father 
charged them that they should bring back with them on their 



CHAPTER 42: 5—20 467 

return. Ch. 43: 14. Joseph affected not to believe their state- 
ments, and he told them at first that they should not go out 
from thence until one of their number went and brought Ben- 
jamin, that they might thus prove the truth of what they had told 
him; and meanwhile he put them in prison three days. 

In all this history of the brethren of Joseph, and the re- 
peated journeys they made to Egypt, nothing is said of any 
except the sons of Jacob, ten men, and later eleven, and "every 
one with his ass," to carry the grain; without there being any 
allusion whatever to the numerous accompaniment of dependents 
or servants they carried with them. It is important to fix 
attention on this peculiarity of the Biblical narrative, in order 
that in other cases we may supply in the interpretation what 
may be wanting in the text. Ten asses well loaded (about 
four or five bushels each) would hardly supply the encampment 
of Jacob with breadstuff s for a single week; and yet it is evident 
from ch. 43: 2 — 10, that they carried enough to last them two 
or three months; for each journey occupied several weeks, two 
or three in going, and as many in returning. It is therefore 
certain that they carried with them many servants and a numer- 
ous train of beasts of burden; 250 or 300 lbs. (5 bushels apiece) 
being a full load for asses; no mention is made of camels. 

All this caravan, therefore, stood idly waiting the three days 
that their masters were in prison. But Joseph remembered 
the need of their families, and changed his plan on the third 
day, retaining but one of their number, and sending the rest 
of them to their father. As the phrases "three days" and "on 
the third day" figure so notably in the account of the death 
and resurrection of Christ, it will be very proper to observe in 
vrs. 17 and 18, the vague and indeterminate Hebrew way of 
using the words. If he had them shut up three days, then ac- 
cording to our usage it would be the fourth day when he changed 
his plan, and keeping only one of them in prison, sent the nine 
to carry home the provisions bought, and to bring Benjamin. 
But instead of this, they were in prison two nights and the 
intermediate day, together with part of the first and third 
days — precisely the time that Jesus was among the dead; and 
there is no more reason to accuse the Bible of inaccuracy and 
self-contradiction in the one case than in the other. In Spanish 
also we say ordinarily, or always: "in eight days," for in one 
week, and "in fifteen days," for in two weeks. 

The words "I fear God," in vr. 18, must have been extremely 
consolatory to these men, there in Egypt; however little of 
the fear of God they themselves possessed, and although they 



468 GENESIS 

were then suffering the consequences of the atrocious crime 
which, without any fear of God whatever, they had committed 
against the defenceless child, their brother, who, without their 
knowing it, stood then before them. 

42: 21 — 24. conscience stricken, they accuse themselves: 
joseph weeps at beholding the scene. (1707 b. c.) 

21 And they said one to another, We are verily guilty concerning 
our brother, in that we saw the distress of his soul, when he be- 
sought us, and we would not hear ; therefore is this distress come 
upon us. 

22 And Reuben answered them, saying, Spake I not unto you, 
saying, Do not sin against the child; and ye would not hear? therefore 
also, behold, his blood is required. 

23 And they knew not that Joseph understood them ; for there 
was an interpreter between them. 

24 And he turned himself about from them and wept : and he 
returned to them, and spake to them, and took Simeon from among 
them, and bound him before their eyes. 

All the business intercourse and the conversation which had 
taken place between Joseph and his brothers was by means of 
an interpreter. Vr. 23. When therefore he was not present, 
they thought themselves secure, and spoke without reserve in 
the presence of Joseph. The straits in which they found them- 
selves vividly reminded them of those in which they had placed 
their brother twenty-two years before, and of the passionate 
but fruitless appeals he had made to them to have mercy 
upon him. Reuben also exonerated himself of all part in that 
proceeding; and yet in twenty-two years he had preferred to 
keep the peace with his brothers, in the matter of this horrible 
secret, rather than relieve the mortal anguish of his aged 
father, by telling him that Joseph was not dead, but had been 
sold into slavery. 

All this passed before the eyes of Joseph, they believing that 
he did not understand them; and it so deeply affected him, that 
he had by a great effort to restrain his emotions, lest his tears 
should betray him before the time. He turned about, therefore, 
into his bed-chamber (ch. 43: 30), and wept there, before he 
was able to take Simeon from among them and bind him in their 
presence, in order to deliver him again into prison. 

42: 25 — 28. the money of each man is restored to him, being 
placed in the mouth of his sack. (1707 b. c.) 

25 Then Joseph commanded to fill their vessels with grain, and 
to restore every man's money into his sack, and to give them provision 
for the v/ay : and thus was it done unto them. 

26 And they laded their asses with their grain, and departed 
thence. 



CHAPTER 42 : 25—28 469 

27 And as one of them opened his sack to give his ass provender 
in the lodging-place, he espied his money ; and, behold, it was in the 
mouth of his sack. 

28 And he said unto his brethren, My money is restored : and, lo, 
it is even in my sack : and their heart failed them, and they turned 
trembling one to another, saying, What is this that God hath done 
unto us? 

It would seem that the object of Joseph in this procedure 
was to multiply unlooked-for events, to complicate more and more 
the situation in which his brethren found themselves, and to 
awaken to the highest degree their fears for their own security. 
They were furnished with provisions for their personal use 
in the way, so that an air of mystery held them in expecta- 
tion of something, and an experience of unlooked-for favor was 
mingled with other circumstances that threatened them with 
severe punishment, if not with ruin. This mixture of opposite 
sentiments greatly favored the purpose of Joseph. Only one 
of them opened his sack to give provender to his ass at the 
lodging-place; and in spite of the surprise and apprehension 
which finding his money caused them, it seems that the rest 
did not open their sacks till they came to their father (vr. 35), — 
a journey of twelve to fifteen days: which brings us another 
incidental proof that the servants who accompanied them, with 
many loads of grain, supplied their masters and their asses with 
all that they needed in the long journey. Their exclamation at 
seeing with surprise and alarm the money in the mouth of 
the sack of the one who opened his at the lodging-place: "What 
is this that God has done unto us?" puts in a clear light the 
general belief of them all that God had begun to surround 
them with a net from which with difficulty they would es- 
cape. 

The word "inn," in most of our Bibles, ought not to induce 
any reader to believe that there was then, or that there are 
now, houses of entertainment in the East: these were an in- 
vention of the Middle Ages. The word "inn," even in the New 
Testament (unless Luke 10: 24 he an exception), refers to 
places supplied with water, and conveniently arranged for 
travelers and caravans to spend the night, they carrying their 
own provisions for the way; and were and are rather caravan- 
saries than inns, where lodging and food are furnished to all 
who ask and pay for it; "lodging-places," as said in the text, 
vr. 27. 



470 GENESIS 

42: 29 — 34. they acquaint their father jacob with what had 
happened with the governor of egypt. (1707 b. c.) 

29 And they came unto Jacob their father unto the land of Canaan, 
(and told him all that had befallen them, saying, 

30 The man, the lord of the land, spake roughly with us, and 
took us for spies of the country. 

31 And we said unto him, We are true men ; we are no spies : 

32 we are twelve brethren, sons of our father ; one is not, and the 
youngest is this day with our father in the land of Canaan. 

33 And the man, the lord of the land, said unto us, Hereby shall 
I know that ye are true men : leave one of your brethren with me, 
and take grain for the famine of your houses, and go your way ; 

34 and bring your youngest brother unto me : then shall I know 
that ye are no spies, but that ye are true men : so will I deliver you 
your brother, and ye shall traffic in the land. 

What Jacob most dreaded had actually happened. Benjamin 
was the youngest of all, thirteen or fourteen years younger than 
Joseph; and for this reason they were accustomed to treat him 
as the child of the family, although at this time he could not 
have been less than twenty-five or twenty-six years of age, and 
had several children; for when a few months later, Jacob and 
all his sons went down to Egypt, Benjamin carried with him 
a larger number of children than any of his brothers. Ch. 
46: 21. Jacob did not wish "little Benjamin" (Ps. 68: 27), to 
pass out of his sight. He had not allowed him to go down 
to Egypt with his brothers on the first trip, for fear that some 
harm might befall him; and lo! the fatality of events had 
placed him in such a position that Benjamin had of necessity 
to go to Egypt, the second time; now, not only to buy grain, but 
to liberate Simeon (who was held as a hostage) from prison, or 
from death. 

42: 35 — 38. on seeing the money of each in the mouth of his 
sack, jacob also is filled with fear, and reproaches his 
sons with being the authors of his calamities. he 
resolutely refuses to let benjamin return with them to 

EGYPT. (1707 B. C.) 

35 And it came to pass as they emptied their sacks, that, behold, 
every man's • bundle of money was in his sack : and when they and 
their father saw their bundles of money, they were afraid. 

36 And Jacob their father said unto them, Me have you bereaved 
of my children : Joseph is not, and Simeon is not, and ye will take 
Benjamin away : all these things are against me. 

37 And Reuben spake unto his father, saying, Slay my two sons,* 
if I bring him not to thee : deliver him unto my hand, and I will bring 
him to thee again. 

[*M . S. V., "two of my sons." See ch. 4G : 9.] 



CHAPTER 42: 35—38 471 

38 And he said, My son shall not go down with you; for his 
brother is dead, and he only is left ; if harm befall him by the way in 
which we go, then will ye bring down my gray hairs with sorrow to 
Sheolt. 

UA. V. and M. S. V. to the grave.] 

If they saw with surprise and dismay the money of one of 
their number in the mouth of his sack when he opened it at 
the inn (see ch. 46: 9), when they emptied their sacks at home 
and discovered that they all were in the same case, they naturally 
would believe that somebody was working out a scheme for 
their ruin; — a feeling in which their father fully shared; and 
on seeing this with his eyes, feeling in his trembling heart a 
bitter presentiment of the calamities which one after another 
were coming upon him, he could not longer restrain himself, 
but broke forth in bitter and sinister accusations against them. 
How little did he know (and how little do we know in like 
circumstances) of the mercies of our God, who was then 
working out precisely the result which Jacob most desired, and 
carrying into execution the deep designs of his own wise provi- 
dence; exclaiming with Jacob, as our afflicted and burdened 
hearts often do: "All these things are against me!" 

In vrs. 37, 38, we have another portrait of the weak and in- 
constant Reuben (ch. 49: 4), and we see how little weight 
his most violent protestations had with his father. Many of 
our Versions say: "Slay my two sons, if I bring him not back 
to thee." But the translation is not correct, although it be 
literal; for Reuben had four sons instead of two. Ch. 46: 9. 
The M. S. V. reads: "Slay two of my sons"; what he meant 
to say was: "I will give two lives for one" ; "I will answer for 
the life of thy son with the life of two of mine;" — as if with 
the violent death of two grandsons the venerable old man would 
receive comfort and reparation for the loss of Benjamin! Such 
was Reuben; a man of good instincts, but inconstant, passion- 
ate, without due self-command, and of little weight with his 
brothers and his father. See ch. 49: 4. "My son shall not go 
down with you!" exclaimed the old man; and Judah, "the prince 
among his brethren," resolved to wait for a better opportunity 
to convince him of the contrary. 

"Ye will cause my gray hairs to go down with sorrow to 
the grave," is, in the Hebrew text, "to sheol," once more. See 
Note 26 on "Sheol," or "Hades," in the comment on ch. 37: 35. 
There it is shown with abundance of evidence that "sheol" or 
"hades" is not a place, but the psychological condition or state of 
souls separated from the body. Here, as it is clear that his gray 
hairs could not descend lower than the grave, it is evident 



472 GENESIS 

that sheol or hades is not, as many imagine, a subterranean 
abode of vast dimensions, with different departments, separated 
by impassable gulfs, for different classes of dead persons; but 
the common state of the dead, without any distinction between 
good and bad, and is equivalent to the "grave" as in the Mod- 
ern Spanish Version, and in the Common English Version. 
"Sheol" is literal enough, but it does not put the reader in 
touch with the mind of the writer (which is the real object of 
a translation) ; and "Hades," as that word is now understood 
and used, puts him even farther from it. The notion that there 
are different departments for different classes of dead persons 
in hades or sheol, is I believe a gentile conceit borrowed with- 
out acknowledgment from the mythology of the Greeks and 
Romans, and finds no solid footing either in the Old or the 
New Testament. There is nothing in the parable of the rich 
man and Lazarus (Luke 16: 19 — 31) that even remotely sug- 
gests the idea that the "bosom, of Abraham," where Lazarus 
was "comforted" after death, was a certain department of 
hades, in another department of which the rich man was "tor- 
mented." What the rich man saw was not another region of 
hades, different from his own, but A PERSON — "Abraham (the 
common father of believers), and Lazarus in his bosom." Be- 
sides these two persons, he did not see anybody; and it is an 
abuse of the parable to suppose, and much more to affirm, that 
"Abraham's bosom," of which Jesus speaks, was of any more 
ample dimensions than that of any other father who wishes to 
embrace and console his afflicted child; while the emphatic words 
of Jesus himself assure us that when he and the penitent thief 
(or malefactor) died, the two, in that very day, were together 
in Paradise. And we know, by 2 Cor. 12: 2 — 4, that "the third 
heaven" and "paradise" are one and the same thing; and from 
Rev. 2: 7 we learn that "the tree of life is in the midst of the 
paradise of God"; and it is past all dispute that that tree does 
not flourish in subterranean regions, nor amidst the shades of death. 
[It may be objected to the above by some reader of Josephus, 
that in his "Discourse to the Greeks concerning Hades," he de- 
picts minutely the whole thing, "Abraham's Bosom," and all! 
And this spurious production is sometimes referred to as proof 
of the popular belief of the Jews in Christ's day, and as ex- 
planatory of his allusion to Abraham's bosom, in this parable! 
The absurdity of a Jew's instructing the Greeks concerning 
Hades does not seem to have dawned upon the minds of such 
persons. This invention of idle monks, which the Jews do not 
accept, is found in the Appendix to Whiston's "Complete Works 



CHAPTER 43: 1—10 473 

of Flavins Josephus"; but in "The Genuine Works of Flavins 
Josephus," it is simply discarded, without even an apology for 
the omission. In the undisputed Works of Josephus (Wars of 
the Jews, Book III, Ch. 8, Sec. 5), he gives us this testimony 
as to the popular belief of the Jews in his day (in dissuading 
his soldiers from committing suicide) : "Do ye not know that 
those who depart out of this life according to the law of nature 
. . . their souls are pure and obedient, and obtain a most 
holy place in heaven? from whence in the revolution of ages 
they are again sent into pure bodies; while the souls of those 
whose hands have acted madly against themselves are received 
by the darkest place in Hades?" — Tr.] 

CHAPTER XLIII. 

VBS. 1 — 10. MUCH AGAINST HIS WILL, JACOB HAS AT LAST TO SEND 
BENJAMIN, UNDEB THE GUABANTY WHICH JUDAH OFFEBS HIM. 
(1707 B. C.) 

1 And the famine was sore in the land. 

2 And it came to pass, when they had eaten up the grain which 
they had brought out of Egypt, their father said unto them, Go again, 
buy us a little food. 

3 And Judah spake unto him, saying, The man did solemnly pro- 
test unto us, saying, Ye shall not see my face, except your brother be 
with you. 

4 If thou wilt send our brother with us, we will go down and buy 
thee food : 

5 but if thou wilt not send him, we will not go down ; for tho 
man said unto us, Ye shall not see my face, except your brother be 
with you. 

6 And Israel said, Wherefore dealt ye so ill with me, as to tell the 
man whether ye had yet a brother? 

7 And they said, The man asked straitly concerning ourselves, and 
concerning our kindred, saying, Is your father yet alive? have ye 
another brother? and we told him according to the tenor of these 
words r could we in any wise know that he would say, Bring your 
brother down? 

8 And Judah said unto Israel his father, Send the lad with me, 
and we will arise and go ; that we may live, and not die, both we, and 
thou, and also our little ones.* 

9 I will be surety for him; of my hand shalt thou require him: 
if I bring him not unto thee, and set him before thee, then let me bear 
the blame for ever : 

10 for except we had lingered, surely we had now returned a 
second time. 

[*M. S. V., our families.] 

The journey from Hebron, where Jacob then lived (ch. 46: 1), 
to Zoan in Egypt, where Joseph probably resided, would be 
little if any short of two weeks; and Judah said that if they 
had not delayed, since the time Jacob had refused to send 
Benjamin with them, they might have returned twice, or "a 



V 



474 GENESIS 

second time"; from which we can form some conception of the 
loads of grain which they brought with them the first time, 
and of the size of their caravan, in order to supply moderately 
their encampment for two or three months. We see also how 
great must have been the riches of Jacob, in order to bring 
from Egypt grain in sufficient quantity to maintain so large 
an encampment as his. Jacob, who had resolutely refused to 
send Benjamin with his brothers, and had delayed as long 
as possible in yielding to the inevitable, had at last to tell 
his sons to return and buy more provisions. Judah, there- 
fore, told him plainly that with Benjamin they would go, but 
that they would in no wise go without him; because "that 
man," the governor, had solemnly protested to them that un- 
less they brought with them their younger brother, they abso- 
lutely should not see his face. The poor old man, with much 
naturalness, complained that they had done him a wrong by 
informing the governor that they had yet another brother; and 
from the reply they made him, we know, for the first time, how 
minutely Joseph had informed himself with regard to all the 
family; and they had told him the truth, without any suspicion 
that he was going to oblige them to bring Benjamin into Egypt. 
Judah then, to very different purpose from Reuben, offered him 
such reasonable guaranties that, under the circumstances, the 
poor old man could not do less than accept them. 

43: 11 — 14. AS THERE WAS NO HELP FOR IT, JACOB GIVES ORDERS 
WITH REGARD TO THE SECOND JOURNEY J AND HE COMMITS THE 
ARDUOUS UNDERTAKING TO THE MERCIFUL PROVIDENCE OF GOD. 
(1707 B. C) 

11 And their father Israel said unto them, If it be so now, do this : 
take of the choice fruits of the land in your vessels, and carry down 
the man a present, a little balm, and a little honey, spicery and 
myrrh, nuts, and almonds ; 

12 And take double money in your hand ; and the money that was 
returned in the mouth of your sacks carry again in your hand; per- 
adventure it was an oversight: 

13 Take also your brother, and arise, go again unto the man: 

14 And God Almighty give you mercy before the man, that he may 
release unto you your other brother and Benjamin. And if I be 
bereaved of my children, I am bereaved. 

Of the choicest fruits (Heb. the song) of the country, for 
there was in any case something left although they had no 
harvests, Jacob ordered that they should carry a present to 
the governor— "that man," so terrible for Jacob— with a double 
quantity of money, and besides this, the money returned in 
their sacks, and that, taking with them their brother Benjamin, 



CHAPTER 43: 15—25 475 

they should return to Egypt: and he commended them to God, 
praying that he would grant them mercy before "that man," 
in order that he might loose Simeon and restore Benjamin; 
resigning himself to the inevitable, if after all, he was to be 
deprived of his sons: "If I am bereaved of my children, I am 
bereaved!" This celebrated saying of Jacob is very like to that 
other which was used by Queen Esther (and it was dictated by 
the same emotions), when she exposed herself to death, in order 
to deliver her people, by going uncalled into the presence of king 
Ahasuerus; ordaining that all the Jews in the metropolis should 
pray for her (because fasting there is tantamount to prayer), 
adding, "And if I perish, I perish!" Esth. 4: 16. 

43: 15 — 25. anothee painful surprise for the brothers of 

JOSEPH. (1707 B. c.) 

15 And the men took that present, and they took double money in 
their hand, and Benjamin ; and rose up, and went down to Egypt, and 
stood before Joseph. 

16 And when Joseph saw Benjamin with them, he said to the 
steward of his house, bring the men into the house, and slay, and 
make ready ; for the men shall dine with me at noon. 

17 And the man did as Joseph bade ; and the man brought the 
men to Joseph's house. 

18 And the men were afraid, because they were brought to Joseph's 
house ; and they said, Because of the money that was returned in our 
sacks at the first time are we brought in : that he may seek occasion 
against us, and fall upon us, and take us for bondmen, and our asses. 

19 And they came near to the steward of Joseph's house, and they 
spake unto him at the door of the house, 

20 and said, Oh, my lord, we came indeed down at the first time 
to buy food : 

21 and it came to pass, when we came to the lodging-place, that 
we opened our sacks, and, behold, every man's money was in the 
mouth of his sack, our money in full weight : and we have brought it 
again in our hand. 

22 And other money have we brought down in our hand to buy 
food : we know not who put our money in our sacks. 

23 And he said, Peace be to you, fear not : your God, and the God 
of your father, hath given you treasure in your sacks : I had your 
money. And he brought Simeon out unto them. 

24 And the man brought the men into Joseph's house, and gave 
them water, and they washed their feet ; and he gave their asses prov- 
ender. 

25 And they made ready the present against Joseph's coming at 
noon : for they heard that they should eat bread there. 

With such precautions the men went down into Egypt and 
presented themselves before Joseph; who when he saw that 
Benjamin was with them, resolved to give them a magnificent 
reception. He therefore ordered his steward to carry them 
into his house and to prepare a banquet, that they might dine 
with him at midday. The word "slay," in vr. 16 (Heb. slaughter 
a slaughter) indicates that it was not an everyday affair; it 



476 GENESIS 

signifies a costly and abundant dinner of slaughtered animals, 
in true Oriental style (Matt. 22:4); for the Egyptians wor- 
shipped animals rather than ate them. But his brothers knew 
nothing of these orders, and on seeing themselves taken into 
the house of Joseph, they suspected some design or plan to 
entrap them; and going to Joseph's steward they began to ex- 
cuse themselves in reference to the money which was returned in 
their sacks, protesting their innocence of all evil-doing. The 
steward tranquilized their fears, the best he could, and brought 
Simeon forth to them. He gave them also water to wash their 
feet, as the guests of Joseph, in order that they might pre- 
pare themselves for the banquet at midday; and he also pro- 
vided food for their asses. In the meantime they made ready 
their present for Joseph when he should return home. For that 
pagan, it was perfectly in accord with gentile usages to say: 
"Your God and the God of your father has given you (hidden) 
treasure in your sacks;" implying at the same time that their 
God was nothing to him; just as Laban had said to Jacob, in 
ch. 31: 29. So the ancient pagans made no exclusive claims 
for their own gods, but cheerfully confessed the virtue and 
power of the gods of the different nations, every one towards 
his own people. See 1 Kings 20: 23 — 28. And no more reason- 
able is the protest of a multitude of persons we meet, that 
Protestantism may be an excellent thing for Protestant nations, 
but is quite unsuited to Roman Catholic countries; whose special 
patrons, for many ages past, are Mary and the canonized 
saints. 

43: 26 — 34. Joseph comes at midday, and celebrates a banquet 
with his brethren. (1707 b. c.) 

26 And when Joseph came home, they brought him the present 
which was in their hand into the house, and bowed down themselves 
to him to the earth. 

27 And he asked them of their welfare, and said, Is your father 
well, the old man of whom ye spake? Is he yet alive? 

28 And they said, Thy servant our father is well, he is yet alive. 
And they bowed the head, and made obeisance. 

29 And he lifted up his eyes, and saw Benjamin his brother, his 
mother's son, and said, Is this your youngest brother, of whom ye 
spake unto me? And he said, God be gracious unto thee, my son. 

30 And Joseph made haste ; for his heart yearned over his brother : 
and he sought where to weep ; and he entered into his chamber, and 
wept there. 

31 And he washed his face, and came out; and he refrained him- 
self, and said, Set on bread. 

32 And they set on for him by himself, and for them by themselves, 
and for the Egyptians, that did eat with him, by themselves : because 
the Egyptians might not eat bread with the Hebrews ; for that is an 
abomination unto the Egyptians. 



CHAPTER 43 : 26—34 477 

33 And they sat before him, the first-born according to his birth- 
right, and the youngest according to his youth : and the men mar- 
velled one with another. 

34 And he took and sent messes unto them from before him : but 
Benjamin's mess was five times so much as any of theirs. And they 
drank, and were merry* with him. 

*IIeb. drank largely. 

That "present" about which they were so much concerned to 
have it ready, would naturally be several ass-loads of the most 
precious products that yet remained to them in Canaan, after 
two years of famine — bales or packages which they left outside 
the house until the hour of Joseph's coming, when they were 
brought inside, to be presented to him; prostrating themselves 
at the same time with their faces to the earth. "The house 
of Joseph" was not an isolated building, but a part, or depart- 
ment, of what is called, in ch. 45: 16, "the house of Pharaoh"; 
which occupied a great many acres of ground, with its edifices, 
its store-houses, offices, barracks, and dwellings for thousands 
of soldiers and others, besides those who properly formed the 
royal court. Compare "Caesar's household" in Phil. 4: 22. The 
part which is called "the house of Joseph," where he not only 
lived with his family, but dispatched the vast business of his 
high office, must have been near to the part occupied by Pharaoh 
and his family; for we are told in ch. 45: 2, that when Joseph 
could no longer restrain himself, but wept aloud, " the Egyptians 
heard, and the house of Pharaoh heard." Ch. 45: 2. 

When he had asked his brethren after their welfare and the 
health of their father, he allowed his eyes to rest, seemingly 
for the first time, on his brother Benjamin, his own mother's 
son; and he asked if this was the younger brother of whom 
they had spoken; and said to him: "God be gracious to thee 
my son!" This was now more than Joseph was able to stand, 
and he hastened to go out before his emotions and tears should 
betray him; and entering into his bed-chamber, he wept there. 
Laying then a strong restraint upon himself, he washed his 
face, and came out. He then commanded the servants to serve 
the dinner; which they did, for him apart, for his brethren 
apart, and for the Egyptians who ate with him apart; for, as 
happens now between the different castes of Hindustan, it was not 
lawful for the Egyptians to eat with the Hebrews. By order 
of Joseph, his brethren were seated before him according to 
their respective ages; something which called their attention 
and filled them with amazement; Joseph arranging all the acts 
of this drama so that little by little it should dawn on them 
that he was the brother whom they had sold, before they reached 



478 GENESIS 

the final outcome of the affair. He himself served the portions, 
or messes of meat, and he honored his brother Benjamin with 
a portion of food five times greater than that of any of the 
others. The same form of honor was used by Samuel towards 
Saul, when he commanded the cook to bring the portion which 
he had reserved for this special guest, ever since the time that 
the people were invited; "and the cook took up the thigh (or 
shoulder), with what was upon it, and set it before Saul." 1 
Sam. 9: 24. The brothers of Joseph were at last able to lay 
aside their fears, and to eat, and drink, and make merry with 
him; which is another proof that the Egyptians both made and 
drank wine. See ch. 40: 11, and Note 27. 

CHAPTER XLIV. 

VRS. 1, 2. JOSEPH'S SILVEB CUP. (1707 B. C.) 

1 And he commanded the steward of his house, saying, Fill the 
men's sacks with food, as much as they can carry, and put every 
man's money in his sack's mouth. 

2 And put my cup, the silver cup, in the sack's mouth of the 
youngest, and his grain money. And he did according to the word 
that Joseph had spoken. 

But their mirth was of short duration. The dinner was hardly 
finished when Joseph commanded his steward (a man of con- 
fidence, and whom it is probable he had informed, partly at 
least, of his plan and object), to fill the sacks with as much as 
they would hold, putting each man's money into the mouth of 
his sack, and to place the silver cup of his own individual use 
in the sack of Benjamin; an artifice which fortunately they 
did not suspect; for otherwise, they would have slept little that 
night. 

Joseph's "silver cup," in addition to other circumstances of 
this history, seems to refute a great part of what some writers 
allege as to the luxury and splendor of the court of the Pharaohs 
in the time of Joseph; affirming that it rivalled the European 
courts of modern times. This seems to me a piece of pure ex- 
travagance. Esth. 1: 4 — 7 describes minutely the splendor and 
extravagant luxury Of the court of Persia; of which we do not 
find a trace in the book of Genesis, when treating of the court 
of the Pharaohs. The two famous chariots which Pharaoh had 
for his personal use (ch. 41: 43), the second of which he gave 
to Joseph, do not suggest to us the idea of any extravagant 
luxury; and this cup of Joseph likewise, "his silver cup," seems 
to tell the same story. In the days of Solomon, silver was 
lightly esteemed; and "all his drinking vessels, and all the 



CHAPTER 44: 3— 13 479 

vessels of the house of the forest of Lebanon were of pure gold." 
1 Kings 10: 21. 

44: 3 — 13. Joseph's cup is found in benjamin's sack. (1707 b. c.) 

3i As soon as the morning was light, the men were sent away, they 
and their asses. 

4 And when they were gone out of the city, and were not yet far 
off, Joseph said unto his steward, Up, follow after the men ; and 
when thou dost overtake them, say unto them, Wherefore have ye 
rewarded evil for good? 

5 Is not this that in which my lord drinketh, and whereby he in- 
deed divineth? ye have done evil in so doing. 

6 And he overtook them, and he spake unto them these words. 

7 And they said unto him, Wherefore speaketh my lord such words 
as these? Far be it from thy servants that they should do such a 
thing. 

8 Behold, the money which we found in our sacks' mouths, we 
brought again unto thee cut of the land of Canaan : how then should 
we steal out of thy lord's house silver or gold? 

9 With whomsoever of thy servants it be found, let him die, and 
we also will be my lord's bondmen. 

10 And he said, Now also let it be according unto your words ; he 
with whom it is found shall be my bondman ; and ye shall be blame- 
less. 

11 Then they hasted, and took down every man his sack to the 
ground, and opened every man his sack. 

12 And he searched, and began at the eldest, and left off at tho 
youngest : and the cup was found in Benjamin's sack. 

13 Then they rent their clothes, and laded every man his ass, and 
returned to the city. 

At dawn of day the men set out on their journey. A blending 
of good and evil is what Joseph thought most convenient to 
work in them the effect he desired to produce. They set out 
joyfully and very early, for everything had turned out according 
to their highest expectations and wishes. But scarcely had they 
got outside of the city, when Joseph's steward overtook them, 
and laid against them the formal accusation of having com- 
mitted a robbery in the house of his lord, returning evil for 
good, in recompense of his having admitted them into his 
dwelling and to his own table. They exculpated themselves with 
the utmost sincerity, and carried the protest of their innocence 
to the point of saying that whichever of them was found 
in possession of the missing cup should die, and all of them would 
be servants of his lord. The steward accepted the proposal, with 
the modification that none should die, and that one only should be 
his servant — the man with whom the cup was found. They hastily 
took down their sacks from their asses, while he examined them, 
beginning with the eldest; and the cup was found in the sack of 
Benjamin! They therefore, all of them, rent their garments, in 



480 GENESIS 

token of grief and desperation; and re-lading their asses, they re- 
turned to the city. 

44: 14 17. THEY PRESENT THEMSELVES AGAIN BEFORE JOSEPH. 

(1707 B. C.) 

14 And Judah and his brethren came to Joseph's house ; and he 
was yet there: and they fell before -him on the ground. 

15 And Joseph said unto them, What deed is this that ye have 
done? know ye not that such a man as I can indeed divine? 

16 And Judah said, what shall we say unto my lord? what shall 
we speak? or how shall we clear ourselves? God hath found out the 
iniquity of thy servants : behold, we are my lord's bondmen, both we, 
and he also in whose hand the cup is found. 

17 And he said, Far be it from me that I should do so : the man 
in whose hand the cup is found, he shall be my bondman ; but as for 
you, get you up in peace unto your father. 

Joseph was waiting for them in the same place, and they cast 
themselves at his feet, overwhelmed with desperate affliction. 
Prostrate thus before him, and understanding how completely 
they were in his power, to mete out to them life or death, accord- 
ing to his will, as spies and thieves, Joseph upbraids them with 
their conduct, asking if they did not know that such a man as he 
must understand divination (an art much practiced in Egypt), so 
as to be able to know of the robbery which had been committed. 
It seems almost an act of cruelty on his part to place his brother 
Benjamin in so false a situation, even for one hour; but his plan 
did not admit of any other procedure; and oftentimes in things 
even more serious the innocent must suffer for the guilty. 

Judah then began, and in words of deepest feeling he manifested 
how profoundly all their hearts were moved with the sense of 
their guilt: "What shall we say unto my lord? what shall we 
speak? or how shall we clear ourselves? God hath found out the 
iniquity of thy servants!" — "iniquity," which in their mouth could 
only refer to the great crime committed against Joseph twenty- 
two or twenty-three years before; without even knowing (though 
doubtless they had begun to suspect it), that that brother was 
the same man who stood before them. This result, with the con- 
viction and confession of their sin, the plan of Joseph had ad- 
mirably worked out in them; and all of them, the guilty together 
with the innocent Benjamin, surrendered themselves at his feet 
as bond-servants. This offer Joseph solemnly protested he would 
not accept, declaring his purpose to retain only the one with 
whom the cup was found, and to send away the rest, that they 
might go to their father in peace. 



CHAPTER 44: 18—34 481 

• 44: 18 — 34. the eloquent and soul-moving argument with which 
judah pleads with joseph to release benjamin, and retain 

HIM AS BOND-SERVANT IN HIS STEAD. (1707 B. C.) 

18 Then Judah came near unto him, and said, Oh, my lord, let thy 
servant, I pray thee, speak a word in my lord's ears, and let not thine 
anger burn against thy servant ; for thou art even as Pharaoh. 

19 My lord asked his servants, saying, Have ye a father, or a 
brother? 

20 And we said unto my lord, We have a father, an old man, and 
a child of his old age, a little one ; and liis brother is dead, and he 
alone is left of his mother ; and his father loveth him. 

21 And thou saidst unto thy servants, Bring him down unto me, 
that I may set mine eyes upon him. 

22 And we said unto my lord, The lad cannot leave his father : for 
if he should leave his father, his father would die. 

23 And thou saidst unto thy servants, Except your youngest 
brother come down with you, ye shall see my face no more. 

24 And it came to pass when we came up unto thy servant my 
father, we told him the words of my lord. 

25 And our father said, Go again, buy us a little food. 

26 And we said, We cannot go down : if our youngest brother be 
with us, then will we go down ; for we may not see the man's face, 
except our youngest brother be with us. 

27 And thy servant my father said unto us, Ye know that my 
wife bare me two sons : 

28 and the one went out from me, and I said, Surely he is torn 
in pieces ; and I have not seen him since : 

29 and if ye take this one also from me, and harm befall him, ye 
will bring down my gray hairs with sorrow to Sheol.* 

30 Now therefore when I come to thy servant my father, and the 
lad is not with us ; seeing that his life is bound up in the lad's life ; 

31 it will come to pass, when he seeth that the lad is not with us, 
that he will die : and thy servants will bring down the gray hairs of 
thy servant our father with sorrow to Sheol. 

32 For thy servant became surety for the lad unto my father, 
saying, If I bring him not unto thee, then shall I bear the blame to 
my father for ever. 

33 Now therefore, let thy servant, I pray thee, abide instead of 
the lad a bondman to my lord ; and let the lad go up with his brethren. 

34 For how shall I go up to my father, if the lad be not with me? 
lest I see the evil that shall come on my father. 

*A. V. and M. S. V., the grave. 

The paragraph needs no explanation and admits of no embellish- 
ment. Vr. 28, however, fixes our attention on the circumstance 
that in all those twenty-two or twenty-three years of bitter grief 
for his favorite son, Jacob had not yet lost the hope of seeing 
him again. It is true that he says: "and the one (Joseph) went 
out from me, and I said: Surely he is torn in pieces!" but he 
ends the same sentence, adding "and I have not seen him since" 
It is clear from indications already given that the aged patriarch 
distrusted the good-faith and loyalty of his sons, and suspected 
some treachery on their part. The wives of his sons had no doubt 
grave suspicions of a truth which they had not been able to keep 
secret for twenty-two or twenty-three years; and thus it would 



482 GENESIS 

not be possible to conceal it entirely from the distrustful and dis- 
tressed old man. This outburst of true and moving eloquence, 
which will be always famous among people who read the Bible, 
as a jewel of inimitable beauty, had more effect than Judah ex- 
pected; for it broke Joseph's heart to pieces, and tore from his 
face the mask of cold reserve and strangeness which he had till 
then affected. 

CHAPTER XLV. 

VES. 1 15. JOSEPH MAKES HIMSELF KNOWN TO HIS BRETHREN. 

(1707 B. C.) 

1 Then Joseph could not refrain himself before all them that 
stood by him ; and he cried. Cause every man to go out from me. And 
there stood no man with him, while Joseph made himself known unto 
his brethren. 

2 And he wept aloud : and the Egyptians heard, and the house of 
Pharaoh heard. 

3 And Joseph said unto his brethren, I am Joseph ; doth my father 
yet live? And his brethren could not answer him; for they were 
troubled at his presence. 

4 And Joseph said unto his brethren, Come near to me, I pray 
you. And they came near. And he said, I am Joseph your brother, 
whom ye sold into Egypt. 

5 And now be not grieved, nor angry with yourselves, that ye sold 
me hither : for God did send me before you to preserve life. 

6 For these two years hath the famine been in the land : and there 
are yet five years, in which there shall be neither plowing nor harvest. 

7 And God sent me before you to preserve you a remnant in the 
earth, and to save you alive by a great deliverance. 

8 So now it was not you that sent me hither, but God : and he 
hath made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house, and 
ruler over all the land of Egypt. 

9 Haste ye, and go up to my father, and say unto him, Thus saith 
thy son Joseph, God hath made me lord of all Egypt ; come down unto 
me, tarry not ; 

10 and thou shalt dwell in the land of Goshen, and thou shalt be 
near unto me, thou, and thy children, and thy children's children, and 
thy flocks, and thy herds, and all that thou hast : 

11 and there will I nourish thee ; for there are yet five years of 
famine ; lest thou come to poverty, thou, and thy household, and all 
that thou hast. 

12 And, behold, your eyes see, and the eyes of my brother Ben- 
jamin, that it is my mouth that speaketh unto you. 

13 And ye shall tell my father of all my glory in Egypt, and of 
all that ye have seen : and ye shall haste and bring down my father 
hither. 

14 And he fell upon his brother Benjamin's neck, and wept; and 
Benjamin wept upon his neck. 

15 And he kissed all his brethren, and wept upon them : and after 
that his brethren talked with him. 

Joseph had acted with greater or less skill a part which he 
he was no longer able to represent. It was indispensable for him 
at this point to remove the mask and give vent to the over-master- 
ing feelings of his heart. He therefore cried in a loud voice that 



CHAPTER 45: 1—15 483 

all should go out from his presence; and no one remained with 
them, when, giving loose rein to his emotions and liberty to his 
bursting heart, he broke forth in loud and prolonged weeping. 
For some time Joseph's steward and those who attended most con- 
stantly at his side had waited with interest and anxiety the out- 
come of a drama, whose separate acts they could not comprehend; 
but on hearing the loud weeping which Joseph could no longer 
suppress, they found the expected explanation: "The Egyptians 
heard and the house of Pharaoh heard." Here we see that "the 
house of Joseph" was no more than a part of "the house of 
Pharaoh," and both were of vast extent. After the first paroxysm 
of weeping had passed, and he was able to control his emotions, 
Joseph said to his brethren: "I am Joseph!" And not satisfied 
with the certainty of what they had already told him, with great 
naturalness he asks them once more: "Doth my father yet live?" 

The Bible paints all this scene with wonderful vividness, as 
only the Bible can paint it. Overwhelmed by emotions which 
could not find expression in words, they stood silent and terror- 
stricken before Joseph. The positive certainty of what they had 
before only suspected took away their breath, and instead of 
drawing near to him, they rather withdrew from him. Joseph 
then besought them to come near; and they having done so, he 
repeats: "I am Joseph, your brother, whom ye sold into Egypt!" 
and as the horror of their sin and crime, thus awakened, visibly 
overcomes them, Joseph adds, that they should not be angry with 
themselves for this, since by its means God was saving life, and 
carrying into effect his purposes of great mercy. While the pur- 
pose of God did not at all diminish the atrocity of their sin, 
Joseph carried this thought to the extreme of saying to them: 
"It was not you that sent me hither, but God!" with the purpose 
of diminishing in some degree the alarm and terror which had 
seized upon their minds. In the same manner Peter exhorted the 
people to repent and turn to God, by the consideration that their 
atrocious crime in putting to death their promised Messiah (—"the 
Christ") took place "by the determinate counsel and foreknowl- 
edge of God" (Acts 2: 23, 38) for their salvation and that of the 
world: and some days later he said to them that what God had 
before announced by the mouth of all the prophets, that his 
Christ (or Messiah) should suffer, he had fulfilled, by means of 
their ignorance and sin; and he used this as an argument why 
they should repent and turn to God. Acts 3: 17 — 19. 

Giving expression, then, to his ardent desire to see his aged 
father, he hastens them, even before he had given them his 
brotherly embrace, to bring him at once, and tell the old man, 



484 GENESIS 

bowed down still with grief, of all his glory and power in Egypt, 
and inform him that he had already a place prepared for him 
and for all his; manifesting thus that Joseph had his plan 
well studied out beforehand in all its details. But it was not till 
after he had fallen on their necks and wept upon them all, com- 
mencing with his own brother Benjamin, that his brethren re- 
gained sufficient composure and confidence to speak with him. 
Most admirable is this scene as the Bible paints it for us, and of 
inimitable beauty! Beautiful also is the application which all 
this has to the case of our brother Jesus, brought out from the 
prison-house of the grave, and "exalted to be a Prince and a 
Savior" (Acts 5: 31); and those who receive him unto salvation, 
receive him more or less in the same way as these brethren of 
Joseph: with repentance and sorrow of heart for their past sins 
and want of love toward him. Likewise, as Joseph did not impose 
on them three months of penance, till they had proved themselves 
worthy men, but gave them at once the embrace and kiss of recon- 
ciliation, so also does our brother Jesus with us, when we turn to 
him with repentance and faith and sincere purpose of a new life; 
— without which repentance is a sham. 

45: 16 — 20. when the news is heard by phaeaoh, it causes him 
great satisfaction, and he gives the necessary orders fob 
joseph's father and kindred to come without delay. ( 1706 b. c. ) 

16 And the report thereof was heard in Pharaoh's house, saying 
Joseph's brethren are come : and it pleased Pharaoh well, and hia 
servants. 

17 And Pharaoh said unto Joseph, Say unto thy brethren. This 
do ye : lade your beasts, and go, get you unto the land of Canaan ; 

18 And take your father and your households, and come unto me : 
and I will give you the good of the land of Egypt, and ye shall eat the 
fat of the land. 

19 Now thou art commanded, this do ye; take you wagons out of 
the land of Egypt for your little ones, and for your wives, and bring 
your father, and come. 

20 Also regard not your stuff: for the good of all the land of 
Egypt is yours. 

When the loud weeping of Joseph was heard by "the house of 
Pharaoh," the king did not long delay in finding out what had 
happened; and that God who was fulfilling his own high purposes 
in Joseph and his kindred, so disposed the minds of Pharaoh and 
his counselors that the event gave satisfaction and pleasure to 
them all ; so that the king at once took the necessary steps for the 
immediate removal of Jacob and all the clan, or tribe, into Egypt. 
With such favor he looked upon the matter, that he put at their 
service the best that the land of Egypt contained. Vr. 20. It is 



CHAPTER 45: 21—24 485 

believed that at this time the reigning dynasty was that of the 
Hyksos, or "Shepherd Kings," — Syrians or Asiatics who had in- 
vaded Egypt, and had seized upon the kingdom, and who were ill- 
regarded by the native races of Egypt; by whom they were finally 
expelled, more than 100 years later, at the time when "there 
arose another king (or dynasty) that knew not Joseph," as we 
are told in Ex. 1:8; Acts 7: 18. It is reasonably believed that as 
they were foreigners and Asiatics, Pharaoh and his counselors 
looked with peculiar satisfaction on the coming of Jacob and his 
people, a large and powerful tribe of Asiatics, who would not only 
increase the power and riches of his kingdom, but would give ad- 
ditional firmness to his throne, against the discontent and disturb- 
ances of the native races. So wise is our God, and so wisely does 
he make use of all natural events to carry out his great enter- 
prises; and one of the most precious lessons that we are taught 
by this history of Joseph, is that of having ever the most unlimited 
confidence in his power and providence, and in his inexhaustible 
love. 

"Trust in him at all times, ye people; 
pour your heart before him; 
God is a refuge for us!" Ps. 62: 8. 

45: 21 — 24. Joseph at once makes the necessary arrangements, 
in accordance with what pharaoh had commanded; he also 
gives gifts to his brethren and sends a present to his father. 

(1706 B. C) 

21 And the sons of Israel did so : and Joseph gave them wagons, 
according to the commandment of Pharaoh, and gave them provision 
for the way. 

22 To all of them he gave each man changes of raiment ; but to 
Benjamin he gave three hundred pieces of silver, and five changes of 
raiment. 

23 And to his father, he sent after this manner : ten asses_ laden 
with the good things of Egypt, and ten she-asses laden with grain and 
bread and provision for his father by the way. 

24 So he sent his brethren away, and they departed : and he said 
unto them, See that ye fall not out by the way. 

In Bible times horses were only used for war (see Job 39: 19 — 
25 and Ps. 20: 7) ; for which reason the Israelites did not use them 
until the days of David and Solomon. The wagons which 
Pharaoh sent to bring the women and children of the family of 
Jacob would naturally be ox-carts, as in fact the derivation of the 
word in Hebrew implies. Joseph, who had distinguished his own 
brother Benjamin in the feast which he made for his brethren, 
here distinguishes him again with even more signal marks of his 
preference, giving to each of them changes of raiment, but giving 



486 GENESIS 

to Benjamin five changes of raiment and 300 "pieces of silver"; 
by which phrase we ordinarily understand the shekel— 60 cents 
of our currency. To his venerable father he sent ten asses loaded 
with the most precious things of Egypt, and ten she-asses loaded 
with food for his father on the way. In the Hebrew text a dis- 
tinction is always made between he-asses and she-asses, which 
are not the masculine and feminine forms of the same word, but 
words entirely different. For us it was impossible to appreciate 
the practical difference that there may have been between the 
two; but it seems that the preference was given to the she-ass, 
especially for riding. Comp. Job. 1: 3; 42: 12; Num.22: 21; Judg. 
5: 19, — a distinction between the two but seldom noted in our 
English Versions. 

On dispatching his brethren, Joseph did not regard it as need- 
less to charge them that they should not quarrel by the way; 
something that was very likely to happen under the circumstances. 

45: 25 — 28. jacob receives the tidings with a cold heart; but 
his spirit revives at the sight of the wagons. (1706 B. c.) 

25 And they went up out of Egypt, and came into the land of 
Canaan unto Jacob their father. 

26 And they told him, saying, Joseph is yet alive, and he is ruler 
over all the land of Egypt. And his heart fainted,* for he believed 
them not. 

27 And they told him all the words of Joseph, which he had said 
unto them : and when he saw the wagons which Joseph had sent to 
carry him, the spirit of Jacob their father revived : 

28 and Israel said, It is enough : Joseph my son is yet alive : I 
will go and see him before I die. 

I* Mod. Span. Yer., his heart remained cold.] 

We know by ch. 37 : 14 that Jacob was residing in the valley of 
Hebron when Joseph was sold into Egypt; and we know from ch. 
46: 1 that he was still residing there when Joseph sent for him; 
because he began his journey and came to Beersheba, which was 
25 miles to the S. W. of Hebron, or Mamre, on the way to Egypt. 
The sons of Jacob passed over this road in haste, in order to carry 
their father the tidings of his son Joseph. It is certain, as we 
have seen, that Jacob believed his sons had deceived him with 
regard to the fate of Joseph; and the strange, mysterious and 
inexplicable events which had happened to his sons in Egypt the 
first time, had given him vague presentiments of good or evil, or 
of good and evil; and nevertheless when his sons explained it all, 
with the joyous cry: "Joseph is yet alive, and he is the governor 
of all the land of Egypt!" his heart did not answer to that 
announcement with any emotion, because he did not believe them; 
on the contrary, his heart fainted; (M. S. V., remained cold) ; but 



CHAPTER 46: 1—7 487 

when lie had heard the messages which they brought him from 
his son, and when he saw the wagons sent to carry him and the 
women and children of his family, his spirit revived, and he ex- 
claimed: "It is enough; Joseph my son is yet alive; I will go 
and see him before I die!" It is evident that the unaccustomed 
sight of that train of wagons, or ox-carts, created in him, and in 
all of them, a very deep impression. Old age is of itself sad; 
that of Jacob we know from his own mouth that it was so in a 
pre-eminent degree (ch. 47:9); when, therefore, he heard the 
news of Joseph, he said that he would go to see him, after which 
he would die content; although he lived seventeen years after 
that. 

CHAPTER XLVI. 

VRS. 1 — 7. JACOB AND ALL HIS LINEAGE GO DOWN INTO EGYPT. 

1 And Israel took his journey with all that he had, and came to 
Beer-sheba, and offered sacrifices unto the God of his father Isaac. 

2 And God spake unto Israel in the visions of the night, and said 
Jacob, Jacob. And he said, Here am I. 

3 And he said, I am God, the God of thy father : fear not to go 
down into Egypt : for I will there make of thee a great nation : 

4 I will go down with thee into Egypt ; and I will also surely bring 
thee up again : and Joseph shall put his hand upon thine eyes. 

5 And Jacob rose up from Beer-sheba : and the sons of Israel 
carried Jacob their father, and their little ones, and their wives, in the 
wagons which Pharaoh had sent to carry him. 

6 And they took their cattle, and their goods, which they had 
gotten in the land of Canaan, and came into Egypt, Jacob, and all his 
seed with him : 

7 His sons, and his sons' sons with him, his daughters, and his 
sons' daughters, and all his seed brought he with him into Egypt. 

Jacob therefore in all haste, with all his, and with all that he 
had that was removable, set out on his journey, and went to Beer- 
sheba (25 miles to the S. W. of Hebron), the old abode of his 
grandfather Abraham, and there upon the ancient altar of the 
family, he offered sacrifices to God; seeking information doubtless 
as to God's will; for vr. 3 gives us a clear indication that he had 
a certain dread of going down to Egypt, even after he had set 
out on the journey; and not without good cause; for the step 
was of the gravest importance, and of the most serious conse- 
quences. God therefore appeared to him in visions of the night, 
and tranquilized his fears, authorizing his descent into Egypt, 
and making him promises suitable to the case; and in particular, 
that he would there make of him a great nation; that he would 
go down with him, and he would bring him up again; and that 
Joseph should close his eyes in death. The three promises taken 
together make it impossible to understand "I will also surely bring 



488 GENESIS 

thee up again," of an early return, after the years of famine had 
passed; though Jacob and his sons evidently so understood it (see 
ch. 47: 4), not grasping the three in their true scope and intent, 
as seen after their fulfilment. They are to be understood primarily 
of his dead body, with regard to which he exacted an oath at the 
time of his death, that they should not bury him in Egypt; and 
again, the words are to be understood of his descendants, when 
they went up from Egypt to take possession of the land which God 
had given to their fathers. Not even at such a juncture as this 
was Jacob willing to leave the land given to them, without a 
divine authorization. Comp. ch. 24: 5 — 6. 

Cheered, therefore, with these promises and with the divine au- 
thorization, Jacob and all his set out again on the journey. They 
carried with them their flocks and herds and all the movable 
goods and chattels which they had acquired in the land of Canaan. 
The "stuff" which Pharaoh said they should not concern them- 
selves about (ch. 45: 20), would be that multitude of objects and 
conveniences which they had necessarily to leave behind them; 
but they were told to give themselves no concern about that, "be- 
cause the good of all the land of Egypt is yours." So well did 
God care for the removal of his people into Egypt, that it might 
be verified under the most favorable conditions! The message 
which Joseph gave to Pharaoh was: "My father and my brethren, 
and their flocks, and their herds, and all that they have, are come 
out of the land of Canaan." Ch. 47: 1. All their servants and 
dependants, therefore, they doubtless brought with them, although 
the servants are not mentioned here, any more than in the re- 
peated journeys they made to Egypt to buy grain. Abraham 
had 318 of them, "young men," born in his house, and trained to 
the use of arms, whom he took forth to war (without counting 
the men that he left for the protection of the encampment), when 
he pursued after Chedorlaomer and the other invading kings (ch. 
13: 14); which would represent an encampment of not less than 
1,500 or 2,000 persons. And if Abimelech king of Gerar had any 
cause to say to Isaac: "Go from us, for thou art much stronger 
than we" (ch. 26: 16), it is reasonable to believe that Jacob and 
his twelve sons, 100 years later, would carry with them into 
Egypt an encampment of not less than 3,000 or 4,000 persons. It 
Is very important to bear this circumstance in mind, when we 
come to account for the enormous increase of the people in Egypt, 
in the space of 215 years, — almost seven generations of 30 years 
each. An incredible increase, it might well be esteemed, if we 
attended only to those mentioned in vrs. 7 — 27, the 70 souls of the 
family of Jacob who came into Egypt. But it is noways incredible 



CHAPTER 46: 8—27 489 

that 3,000 or 4,000 persons, masters and servants, all of them 
circumcised Israelites (ch. 15: 12, 13), should increase into a 
nation of two or three millions in the space of 215 years, doubling 
every 20 or 25 years; and the Bible says that they increased in a 
very extraordinary manner: Heft, they bred or swarmed (like 
fishes). Ex. 1: 7, 12. Comp. ch. 1: 20—21. 

46 : 8 — 27. a complete list of the lineage of jacob which estab- 
lished THEMSELVES IN EGYPT, INCLUDING JOSEPH AND HIS SONS. 

8 And these are the names of the children of Israel, who came 
into Egypt, Jacob and his sons : Reuben, Jacob's first-born. 

9 And the sons of Reuben : Hanoch, and Pallu, and Hezron, and 
Carmi. 

10 And the sons of Simeon : Jemuel, and Jamin, and Ohad, and 
Jachin, and Zohar, and Shaul the son of a Canaanitish woman. 

11 And the sons of Levi : Gershon, Kohath, and Merari. 

12 And the sons of Judah ; Er, and Onan, and Shelah, and Perez, 
and Zerah : but Er and Onan died in the land of Canaan. And the 
sons of Perez were Hezron and Hamul. 

13 And the sons of Issachar : Tola, and Puvah, and lob, and 
Shimron. 

14 And the sons of Zebulun : Sered, and Elon, and Jahleel. 

15 These are the sons of Leah, whom she bare unto Jacob in 
Paddan-aram. with his daughter Dinah : all the souls of his sons and 
his daughters were thirty and three. 

16 And the sons of Gad: Ziphion, and Haggi, Shuni, and Ezbon, 
Eri, and Arodi, and Areli. 

17 And the sons of Asher : Imnah, and Ishvah, and Ishvi, and 
Beriah, and Serah their sister ; and the sons of Beriah : Heber, and 
Malchiel. 

18 These are the sons of Zilpah, whom Laban gave to Leah his 
daughter ; and these she bare unto Jacob, even sixteen souls. 

19 The sons of Rachel Jacob's wife : Joseph and Benjamin. 

20 And unto Joseph in the land of Egypt were born Manasseh and 
Ephraim, whom Asenath, the daughter of Poti-phera priest of On, bare 
unto him. 

21 And the sons of Benjamin : Bela, and Becher, and Ashbel, 
Gera, and Naaman, Ehi, and Rosh. Muppim, and Huppim, and Ard. 

22 These are the sons of Rachel, who were born to Jacob : all the 
souls were fourteen. 

23 And the sons of Dan: Hushim. 

24 And the sons of Naphtali : Jahzeel, and Guni, and Jezer, and 
Shillem. 

25 These are the sons of Bilhah, whom Laban gave unto Rachel 
his daughter, and these she bare unto Jacob : all the souls were seven. 

26 All the souls that came with Jacob into Egypt, that came out' 
of his loins, besides Jacob's sons' wives, all the souls were three- 
score and six ; 

27 and the sons of Joseph, who were born to him in Egypt, were 
two souls : all the souls of the house of Jacob, that came into Egypt, 
were threescore and ten. 

Dinah is expressly mentioned in the list of the children of 
Leah, and is counted among the 70 persons of the house of Jacob 
who went down to Egypt; excepting from the list only the wives 
of the sons of Jacob. Vr. 26. It would seem, therefore, that Jacob 
had no other daughter of his own, except Dinah, and that the 



490 GENESIS 

words "his daughters," in vr. 7 and ch. 37: 35, refer naturally to 
his daughters-in-law; since it is said in vrs. 26, 27 that all the 
souls of his own immediate family, "besides Jacob's sons' wives, 
. . . all the souls of the house of Jacob that came into Egypt 
were seventy." It is to be noted that Stephen says in Acts 7: 14 
that Jacob and all his kindred who went down into Egypt were 
"seventy-five persons." This is because the Greek version of the 
LXX. for some reason adds to the Hebrew text several children of 
Manasseh and of Ephraim, and increases the total number to 75, 
without regard to the fact that at the time of the arrival of 
Jacob and his family, Manasseh and Ephraim could not have been 
more than seven or eight years of age; so that these sons of theirs 
were born to them many years later. But Stephen, a Greek-speak- 
ing Jew, naturally quoted from the Greek Version which was 
familiar to him; without feeling that it was his duty to stop in 
his discourse in order to correct the errors of the Greek text, even 
if he was aware of them. The mention of Shaul (or Saul), of 
the family of Simeon, as "the son of a Canaanitish woman" (Vr. 
10) gives us to understand, as before said, that, with the exception 
of Judah, who also married a Canaanitish woman (ch. 38: 2), 
and Joseph, who married an Egyptian princess, the sons of Jacob 
married women of their own encampment. 

46: 28 — 30. jacob notifies Joseph of his coming; and he goes 

FOETH TO MEET HIM AS FAR AS THE LAND OF GOSHEN. (1706 B. C.) 

28 And he sent Judah before him unto Joseph, to show the way 
before him unto Goshen ; and they came into the land of Goshen. 

29 And Joseph made ready his chariot, and went up to meet Israel 
his father, to Goshen ; and he presented himself unto him, and fell on 
his neck, and wept on his neck a good while. 

30 And Israel said unto Joseph, Now let me die, since I have seen 
thy face, that thou art yet alive. 

Judah, as "the prince among his brethren," was sent before, 
to notify Joseph of the coming of his father and his kindred, in 
order that he might be there beforehand to meet them. It seems 
that this is the sense of the Hebrew (A. V. "to direct his — Joseph's 
— face unto Goshen") which is somewhat indeterminate in this 
place. In fact, Joseph (according to vr. 29) was in Goshen to 
receive his father at the time of his arrival, Judah and Joseph 
traveling very rapidly, while Jacob and his encampment would 
travel slowly. The meeting of the aged patriarch with his son, 
so many years lost to him, is described in language beautiful and 
tender to the last degree, and which needs no embellishments on 
our part. Jacob was old, and he was not naturally of the most 
amiable disposition. His elder sons, as this history shows, 



CHAPTER 46: 31—34 491 

bore toward him little affection, and showed him little considera- 
tion; while Joseph, his favorite son, heaped upon him a wealth 
of affection and honor, which neither in life nor in death were 
ever chilled; and it is interesting in a high degree to observe such 
affection and such honor bestowed on an aged father. 

To these manifestations of honor and affection Jacob answered 
with effusion of his soul: "Now let me die, since I have seen thy 
face; that thou art yet alive!" His words bring to mind those 
of the ancient Simeon, when he received into his arms the infant 
Jesus: 

"Now lettest thy servant depart, oh Lord, 

according to thy word, in peace; 

for mine eyes have seen thy salvation," etc. Luke 2: 29. 

46 : 31 — 34. Joseph gives instructions to his brethren as to how 
they shall answer pharaoh when they are presented before 

HIM. (1706 B. C.) 

31 And Joseph said unto his brethren, and unto his father's house, 
I will go up, and tell Pharaoh, and will say unto him, My brethren, 
and my father's house, who were in the land of Canaan, are come 
unto me ; 

32 and the men are shepherds, for they have been keepers of 
cattle; and they have brought their flocks, and their herds, and all 
that they have. 

33 And it shall come to pass, when Pharaoh shall call you, and 
shall say, What is your occupation? 

34 that ye shall say, Thy servants have been keepers of cattle 
from our youth even until now, both we, and our fathers : that ye may 
dwell in the land of Goshen : for every shepherd is an abomination 
unto the Egyptians. 

It is evident that at this time the capital of the country and 
the court of the king were in Lower Egypt, not far from the land 
of Goshen, which was situated near the Isthmus of Suez. The 
arrival of a tribe of Asiatics so numerous and important, made it 
necessary that they should be presented before Pharaoh, and com- 
ply with the law and usage of giving an account of themselves, 
and asking permission to remain and traffic in the country. Comp. 
ch. 42: 34. The circumstance that Pharaoh had sent to bring them, 
did not modify this usage, and Joseph gave them instructions as 
to how they should reply to the inquiries of Pharaoh, in order 
to gain the object which so deeply interested him; to wit, that 
they should settle in the land of Goshen and nowhere else. In 
this also we see the hand of God. If the Israelites had been 
2olonized in central Egypt, or in the south, or in the west, it 
would have enormously increased the difficulty of their exodus, 
when the time arrived for them to return to Canaan. As 
Pharaoh had said that Joseph should settle his father and his 



492 GENESIS 

brethren in the best of the land, he chose that part which would 
be the easiest and the best for them to enter, and for them to de- 
part from; a great part of it desert, but very suitable for the 
pasturage of cattle, and which contained parts very suitable for 
the cultivation of the soil, being both rich and productive. Thus 
it would happen that whenever the time of the Exodus should 
arrive (a time unknown to them), the people would be already on 
the border of Egypt nearest to Canaan. And as the Egyptians 
held shepherds in abomination, the land of Goshen would be pre- 
cisely the part where they would give least offence to the native 
races of Egypt. The detestation in which the Egyptians held 
shepherds and herdsmen is explained in part by the fact that 
the Egyptians did not eat flesh, and that the animals which the 
Israelites both ate and offered in sacrifice to God, were objects 
of Egyptian worship. Comp. Ex. 8 : 26. It is also probable that it 
had something to do with the hatred which the Egyptians felt 
toward the usurpers of their throne, who were probably the 
reigning dynasty at that time, — foreigners come from Asia, and 
who go in history under the name of the "Shepherd Kings." It 
appears from ch. 47: 6 that Pharaoh himself had cattle, and de- 
sired that Joseph should provide him, from among his brethren, 
with active and able chief-shepherds for the management of them; 
which seems to indicate two things: (1) that the hatred of the 
Egyptians towards the office of shepherd, was prejudicial to his 
interests; and (2) that he was himself of Asiatic race, and raised 
cattle for his own use. Joseph, as we have seen, commanded his 
steward to slaughter animals for the banquet which he made for 
his brothers. Ch. 43: 16. So then the prejudice which the 
Egyptians had against shepherds helped to the attainment of the 
object which so much interested Joseph, to wit, that his father 
and brethren should not go far into the country, but settle on 
the northeastern frontier, which was nearest to Canaan. 

CHAPTER XLVII. 

VES. 1 6. JOSEPH PRESENTS FIVE OF HIS BROTHERS BEFORE PHARAOH. 

(1706 B. C.) 

1 Then Joseph went in and told Pharaoh, and said, My father 
and my brethren, and their flocks, and their herds, and all that they 
have, are come out of the land of Canaan ; and, behold, they are in 
the land of Goshen. 

2 And from among his brethren he took five men, and presented 
them unto Pharaoh. 

3 And Pharaoh said unto his brethren, What is your occupation? 
And they said unto Pharaoh, Thy servants are shepherds, both we, and 
our fathers. 



CHAPTER 47: 7—10 493 

4 And they said unto Pharaoh, To sojourn in the land are we 
come ; for there is no pasture for thy servants' flocks ; for the famine 
is sore in the land of Canaan : now therefore, we pray thee, let thy 
servants dwell in the land of Goshen. 

5 And Pharaoh spake unto Joseph, saying, Thy father and thy 
brethren are come unto thee : 

6 the land of, Egypt is before thee; in the best of the land make 
thy father and thy brethren to dwell ; in the land of Goshen let them 
dwell ; and if thou knowest any able men among them, then make 
them rulers over my cattle. 

Without loss of time, Joseph acquainted Pharaoh with the fact 
of the arrival of his father and his kindred, informing him also 
that they were in the N. E. extremity of the country, in the land 
of Goshen; where he desired that they should remain. "From the 
totality (Heb. "the end"z= whole number; as in Num. 22: 41) of 
his brethren he took five men, and presented them before Pha- 
raoh," in order to comply with the established usage, and to gain 
his formal permission for them to remain in the land of Goshen: 
with all of which arrangements Pharaoh was well satisfied, and 
readily acceded to the request that they should dwell in the land 
of Goshen. It is to be noted here that they gave him frankly to 
understand that they came only to sojourn in Egypt, on account 
of the famine in the land of Canaan, and distinctly with the pur- 
pose of returning there soon. It is evident that though the de- 
signs of God were very different, Jacob and his sons had no other 
thought than that of returning to their country when the existing 
necessity had passed; and it is probable that they alleged this 
circumstance as a reason why he should permit them to remain 
in the land of Goshen. This part of the country is here called 
"Goshen," and in vr. 11 it is called "the land of Rameses" It is 
probable that the western part of Goshen, which touched upon the 
delta of the river Nile, and its system of canals for irrigation, 
was in fact the most fertile and the best of the land of Egypt, 
while the part toward the east and N. E., which touched upon the 
desert, would be the most convenient for the raising of cattle. 

47: 7 — 10. JACOB also is peesented before phabaoh, and blesses 

HIM. (1706 B. c.) 

7 And Joseph brought in Jacob his father, and set him before 
Pharaoh : and Jacob blessed Pharaoh. 

8 And Pharaoh said unto Jacob, How many are the days of the 
years of thy life? 

9 And Jacob said unto Pharaoh, The days of the years of my 
pilgrimage* are a hundred and thirty years : few and evil have been 
the days of the years of my life, and they have not attained unto the 
days of the years of the life of my fathers in the days of their pil- 
grimage.* 

10 And Jacob blessed Pharaoh, and went out from the presence 
of Pharaoh. 

*Or, sojournings. 



494 GENESIS 

The apostle says in Heb. 7: 7, that "without any dispute, the 
less is blessed of the greater" (Gr. better: see 1: 4). Jacob, with- 
out presuming upon being greater or better than Pharaoh, as the 
prophet and priest of God blessed the king of Egypt, and at the 
end of the interview, he blessed him again; and it is probable that 
his "blessing" served likewise (as is also our use), to express 
his gratitude toward the friend and protector of his son, who in 
addition to this, bestowed with liberal hand great favors on 
Jacob and his family. When the king asked him: "How many 
are the days of the years of thy life!" (for it is probable that his 
age called the attention of Pharaoh, as being greater than was 
usual in Egypt), the patriarch, who was well-experienced in evils, 
responded in words which, if not elegant, are certainly notable, 
and are well-remembered by all who are intimately acquainted 
with the Bible: "The days of the years of my pilgrimage (Heb. 
sojournings) are a hundred and thirty years: few and evil have 
been the days of the years of my life, and have not attained unto 
the days of the years of the life of my fathers in the days of their 
pilgrimage." Under the same remembrance of evils experienced, 
and of the good promised to the people of Jehovah, Moses the man 
of God exclaims: 

"Return, Oh Jehovah; how long? 

and let it repent thee concerning thy servants! 

Oh satisfy us early with thy mercy; 

that we may rejoice and be glad all our days! 

Make us glad according to the days wherein thou hast 

afflicted us, 
and the years wherein we have seen evil! 
Let thy work appear unto thy servants, 
and thy glory unto their children; 
and let the beauty of Jehovah our God be upon us, 
and establish thou the work of our hands upon us; 
yea, the work of our hands establish thou it!" 

Ps. 90: 13—17. 

All the life of the patriarchs, from the time that God called 
Abraham out of his father's house and the land of his nativity, 
until they took possession of the promised land, is called a 
"pilgrimage," — or "so journeying" — a temporary abode; the home- 
less life of one who lives in a country not his own, without the 
rights of citizenship; and thus Canaan is called the "land of their 
sojournings." It is not that their human life is called a sojourn- 
ing, or pilgrimage, far from their country, Heaven; but the Old 
Testament Scriptures speak rather of the "sojournings of Abra- 



CHAPTER 47: 13—26 495 

ham," and those of Isaac and those of Jacob. Ch. 17: 8; 28: 4; 
37: 1; Ex. 6:4. In this very passage (vr. 9) the Hebrew text is 
sojournings, rather than pilgrimage. It is just and proper to un- 
derstand the word in an accommodated and spiritual sense, as 
does the apostle in Heb. 11: 13 — 16; and in vr. 9 it is natural to 
understand the word, as translated in the singular number, of the 
mortal sojourning of Jacob: but in ch. 36: 7, Canaan is called 
"the land of the sojournings" of the worldly Esau, no less than 
of Jacob; and in Ezek. 20: 38, Babylon is called "the land of the 
sojournings" of those impious Jews who were not to return any 
more to the land of Israel. In the Hebrew text, the word is of 
frequent use to designate a temporary abode in a given place, in 
distinction from a permanent residence. 

After blessing Pharaoh again, Jacob went out from his presence. 

47: 11, 12. JOSEPH MAKES PROVISION FOR HIS FATHER AND HIS 
KINDRED. (1706 B. C.) 

11 And Joseph placed his father and his "brethren, and gave them 
a possession in the land of Egypt, in the best of the land, in the land 
of Rameses, as Pharaoh had commanded. 

12 And Joseph nourished his father, and his brethren, and all his 
father's household, with bread, according to their families. 

We know from vrs. 20 — 22 that during the long famine the 
Egyptian priests did not lose their lands (as did the common 
people of Egypt), because Pharaoh provided them with a daily 
ration, so that they did not have to sell their lands to buy food. 
But Joseph made a better provision for his father and his 
kindred; he "gave them a possession in the land of Egypt," and 
then provided them with subsistence during the five remaining 
years of the famine. 

As Joseph enjoyed unlimited favor and unlimited power, and 
none denied or disputed the great benefits which Egypt owed to 
him, he was able to make these arrangements for the family of 
his father, without anybody being opposed to it: under other cir- 
cumstances it would not have been possible for him to have done 
so. It is regarded as certain also, as has been said, that this hap- 
pened under the government of one of the Shepherd Kings, who 
being Asiatics, naturally favored the foreigners who were of the 
same general stock as themselves; since they would assist in 
maintaining the ascendency of that dynasty; which at a later 
day was dethroned and cast out of the country. 

47: 13 — 26. "the fifth for pharaoh." 

13 And there was no bread in all the land ; for the famine was 
very sore, so that the land of Egypt and the land of Canaan fainted 
by reason of the famine. 



496 GENESIS 

14 And Joseph gathered up all the money that was found in the 
land of Egypt, and in the land of Canaan, for the grain which they 
bought ; and Joseph brought the money into Pharaoh's house. 

15 And when the money was all spent in the land of Egypt, and 
in the land of Canaan, all the Egyptians came unto Joseph, and said, 
Give us bread: for why should we die in thy presence? for our money 
faileth. 

16 And Joseph said, Give your cattle : and I will give you for your 
cattle, if money fail. 

17 And they brought their cattle unto Joseph ; and Joseph gave 
them bread in exchange for the horses, and for the flocks, and for the 
herds, and for the asses : and he fed them with bread in exchange for 
all their cattle for that year. 

18 And when that year was ended, they came unto him the second 
year, and said unto him, We will not hide from my lord, how that our 
money is all spent ; and the herds of cattle are my lord's ; there is 
nought left in the sight of my lord, but our bodies, and our lands : 

19 wherefore should we die before thine eyes, both we and our 
land? buy us and our land for bread, and we and our land will be 
servants unto Pharaoh : and give us seed., that we may live, and not 
die, and that the land be not desolate. 

20 So Joseph bought all the land of Egypt for Pharaoh ; for the 
Egyptians sold every man his field, because the famine was sore upon 
them : and the land became Pharaoh's. 

21 And as for the people, he removed them to the cities from one 
end of the border of Egypt even to the other end thereof. 

22 Only the land of the priests bought he not : for the priests had 
a portion from Pharaoh, and did eat their portion which Pharaoh 
gave them ; wherefore they sold not their land. 

23 Then Joseph said unto the people, Behold, I have bought you 
this day and your land for Pharaoh : lo, here is seed for you, and ye 
shall now sow the land. 

24 And it shall come to pass at the ingatherings, that ye shall 
give a fifth unto Pharaoh, and four parts shall be your own, for seed 
of the field, and for your food, and for them of your households, and 
for food for your little ones. 

25 And they said, Thou hast saved our lives : let us find favor in 
the sight of ray lord, and we will be Pharaoh's servants. 

26 And Joseph made it a statute concerning the land of Egypt 
unto this day, that Pharaoh should have the fifth ; only the land of 
the priests alone became not Pharaoh's. 

We know from secular history that the Egyptians paid to the 
king the fifth part of the produce of the soil, except the lands of 
the priests, which were exempt from this tribute: here we have 
given us the origin of both usages. Among the Israelites, God 
claimed, by the Mosaic law, the tenth part of the produce of the 
soil; although, as no provision was made for the collectors of 
tithes, it remained at the will of the individual to pay or not to 
pay. See Deut. 26: 12—15; Mai. 3: 10. Besides this tithe for God 
and his worship, Samuel said to the people who demanded of him 
a king, that their king "would take the tenth of their seed and 
(the produce) of their vineyards" (1 Sam. 8: 15), and would 
doubtless take care that this tithe was of necessity paid; but in 
both cases, in Egypt and in Canaan, the owners of the lands were 
few and the produce of the soil in good years was generally very 



CHAPTER 47: 13—26 497 

great; and as the laborers did not pay, but only the owners of the 
land, the tithe never became the heavy burden which it has 
always been where the Romish priests claimed the tithe as theirs 
of divine right, under the sanctions of the civil law, and ap- 
pointed tithe-collectors to make effective their usurped and mis- 
called rights. 

It would be a false inference to draw from vrs. 15 — 20 that 
before this the Egyptians in their generality were owners of 
land and cattle: the vast majority of them were always miserable 
slaves, or worse than slaves, without possessions of any kind, 
and without rights; 200,000 of whom, it is said, were occupied for 
the space of 20 years in building a single one of the pyramids.* 
The paragraph speaks of persons who were owners of landed 
estate. Besides this, the cultivated districts were nothing more 
than a narrow strip of fertile land, watered by the annual inunda- 
tions of the river Nile, the owners of which were necessarily rich 
or well-to-do people. In regard to the equitableness of appropriat- 
ing the fifth part of the harvest in the seven years of abundance, 
and selling the same to the people during the seven years of 
famine, until their money was exhausted, and the people had to 
sell for bread, first their cattle, and last their lands and 
then their persons, in order to live, we are not in circumstances 
to judge the case accurately, so far as Joseph is concerned. The 
government in Egypt has always been despotic, and the fifth 
which was appropriated in the seven years of abundance, left 
still in the hands of the proprietors more grain than they needed 
or were able to use. For, as the sagacious Gideon said to appease 
the infuriated Ephraimites: "Is not the gleaning of the grapes 
of Ephraim better than the vintage of Abiezer?" (Judg. 8:2), 
the four-fifth parts of such harvests of the valley of the Nile would 
be more, in amount, and harvested with less labor, than the most 
abundant of our crops. 

The Egyptians likewise had timely notice to make their own 
personal arrangements for the years of famine. But for a crisis 
like that, all the faith and wisdom of a Joseph was necessary, 
sustained by all the resources of the State, and the despotic power 
of an absolute monarchy, in order to save the nation from de- 
struction. However that may have been, so manifest was the 
salvation which Joseph had wrought, that the Egyptians were 
well satisfied with the yoke which he laid upon them, when he 
established a law in Egypt, which lasted till the days of Moses, 

*"The building of the Great Pyramid, according to Herodotus, occupied 
30 years time, and relays of men numbering in all eleven millions." 
Geike, Hours with the Bible, Vol. 1 : p. 135. — Tr. 



498 GENESIS 

and still later: "The fifth for Pharaoh!" Meanwhile, and till 
the years of famine had passed, for the convenience of attending 
to the maintenance of the people, he removed them from the 
villages and the fields to the cities, and there sustained them 
at the expense of the public treasury; and when the years of 
seed-time and harvest again returned, he gave them lands and 
seed; with the understanding that the fifth part should he for 
Pharaoh, and the four-fifths for themselves; excepting always 
the lands of the priests. In this was manifested the religiousness 
of the ancient Egyptians, celebrated by Herodotus and other 
writers; but they did not on this account fail of being a peo- 
ple extremely corrupted and vicious in their moral character. 
The same thing happened in Babylon and Assyria, people ex- 
tremely religious in their way, and where the priests exercised 
a preponderating influence in all their affairs; but morally 
corrupt to a degree that can hardly be believed in our day. 
So also in Europe during the Middle Ages, the clergy and barons 
had everything their own way, a priest was worth more than a 
king, and the "keeper of the king's conscience" was a more 
important officer than prime minister; but in regard to liberty, 
justice, purity of customs, and good morals, with security of 
person, of life and of the family, and especially the honor and 
safety of women, the case could hardly have been worse. There 
is only one religion with regard to which it is true that how 
much more fervently religious a people is, so much the more free, 
moral, intelligent, industrious, happy and well-governed it is; 
and that is the religion of the Bible — the only religion which is 
truly that of Jesus Christ: but the more intensely and fervently 
pagan, Mohammedan or Roman Catholic any people or nation 
is, so much the more unfortunate it will be in all these respects. 
Count them over and see. Jesus Christ has said, and still is 
saying: "Call no man your father (^spiritual father) on the 
earth; for one (only) is your Father, who is in heaven. Neither 
be ye called masters; for one (only) is your Master, the 
Christ;": — "one (only) is your Master, and all ye are brethren" 
(Matt. 23: 9, 10, 8)— a doctrine which "the priests" can never 
tolerate. 

47: 27 — 31. jacob lives seventeen years is egypt, and when 
near his death, he exacts an oath from joseph to bury him 
only in the land of his inheritance. (1689 b. c.) 

27 And Israel dwelt in the land of Egypt, in the land of Goshen ; 
and they gat them possessions therein, and were fruitful, and multi- 
plied exceedingly. 



CHAPTER 47: 27—31 499 

28 And Jacob lived in the land of Egypt seventeen years : so the 
days of Jacob, the years of his life, were a hundred forty and seven 
years. 

29 And the time drew near that Israel must die : and he called his 
son Joseph, and said unto him, If now I have found favor in thy sight, 
put, I pray thee, thy hand under my thigh, and deal kindly and truly 
with me : bury me not, I pray thee, in Egypt. 

30 but when I sleep with my fathers, thou shalt carry me out of 
Egypt, and bury me in their burying-place. And he said, I will do as 
thou hast said. 

31 And he said, Swear unto me; and he sware unto him. And 
Israel bowed himself upon the bed's head. 

Jacob had passed seventeen years tranquilly in Egypt, living 
but a short distance from his son Joseph, (ch. 45: 10), when 
he drew near to the inevitable hour of death. He sent therefore 
and called Joseph, and exacted of him a promise that he would 
carry his mortal remains to Canaan, and bury him in the 
sepulchre of his fathers. And when Joseph promised so to do, 
he was not satisfied, but required of him a solemn oath to 
that effect. The form of this oath, with the hand beneath his 
thigh is the same that Abraham made use of when he sent 
his steward in search of a wife for his son Isaac (ch. 24: 2, 3); 
both of them cases of the greatest importance, and in which 
it would be extremely easy to frustrate completely the purpose 
in view, without the possibility of a remedy. Only in these 
two cases have we notice of the use of this form of oath. 
The importance of this oath which Jacob exacted of Joseph 
did not, I think, turn on the natural desire, very ordinary among 
people of all nations (see 2 Sam. 19: 37), to be buried near 
the mortal remains of their fathers. The form of the oath com- 
municated a special solemnity to the promise and the oath, 
and in both cases it seems to make allusion to the covenant of 
circumcision, and to the faith in the coming redemption, sealed 
by this rite. Rom. 4:6. It is clear that Jacob looked to the 
promise given to Abraham, in not consenting that his remains 
should rest anywhere else but in the land of his inheritance. 
The apostle regards it as a singular act of faith in Joseph — 
the only one in fact which he mentions — that "Joseph when 
he was dying made mention of the departure of the children 
of Israel, and gave commandment concerning his bones." Heb. 
11: 22. See ch. 50: 24, 25. In this we are of course to see 
faith in the earthly and temporal promises given to Abraham, 
that his seed should take possession of the promised land at 
the end of four hundred years (ch. 15: 13 — 16); but Calvin, and 
I think with good cause, carries the faith of those ancient patri- 
archs much farther than that, — as looking beyond the grave, 
"to the spectacle of the future renovation"; and adds that Jacob, 



500 GENESIS 

"to testify to his posterity that the hope of the promised land 
did not forsake his heart even in death, commands his remains 
to be re-conveyed there." Institutes, Book III, Ch. 25, Sec. 8. 

The last sentence of the chapter has been the occasion of 
not a little dispute. The ancient Hebrew language, as written, 
had consonants or radical letters, but no vowels; these every 
reader supplied for himself, as in our old style of short-hand; 
so that we may read here "the head of his bed," or "the head 
(or top) of his staff," according as the three consonants, m, t, h 
be read mittah or matteh. The Greek translators, before vowels 
were added to the Hebrew text, as we now have it, gave their 
choice to the second, and translated, in the LXX: "he wor- 
shipped on the top of his staff" — the reading that is followed 
by the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews. But when the 
Masorites came to put vowels to the text, in the sixth century 
after Christ, they chose that it should read "bed" and not "staff"; 
and thus we have the two different readings in the book of 
Genesis and in the Epistle to the Hebrews: "he bowed himself 
on the head of the bed," in Genesis, and "he worshipped (lean- 
ing) on the top of his staff" in Hebrews. Some maintain that 
it could hot be "the head of his bed," inasmuch as the Orientals 
did not use, and do not use, the bed-stead, but only mats or 
rugs spread upon the floor; and because Jacob, although near 
to the time of his death (vr. 29), was not, they say, yet sick, 
nor kept his bed. But although all this were more certain than 
it really is (see Deut. 3: 11, "a bed-stead of iron"; ch. 49: 4, 
"thou wentest up to my bed"; Ps. 132: 3, "I will not go up to 
my bed"; and Mark 4: 21, "to put a lamp under the bed"), the 
point is of no great importance. The patriarch, being fully 
satisfied with this important arrangement, bowed himself upon 
the head of his bed, although it were no more than the rug 
on which he lay, or "he stayed himself on the extremity, or top, 
of his staff," and worshipped God, in the firm faith of the exact 
fulfilment of his promises. 

What is of most importance is the mistranslation that we 
find in Roman Catholic Bibles, to wit, "he adored the top of 
his rod"; with the understanding, as the note of Bishop Amat 
explains it, that the rod was probably that of Joseph, and the 
symbol of his authority, "in whom he saw prefigured the Mes- 
siah"; ["a figure of Christ's sceptre and kingdom," says the 
Rheims' New Testament, of Archbishop Hughes, — Tr.]; — and so 
a worthy object of adoration! But the Hebrew text, and the 
Greek of the LXX, and the latter as cited in Heb. 11: 21, all 
three say he "bowed himself ON the head of his bed"; or 



CHAPTER 48: 1—7 501 

"he worshipped ON the top of his staff," — a little word which 
the Roman Catholic Versions omit, for the purpose of making 
it appear that the patriarch Jacob worshipped, as they do, a 
piece of wood! The word "leaning" in our versions of Gen. 
47: 31 and Heb. 11: 21, are in italics; which means to say that 
they are not found in the original text; but "worshipped on the 
top of his staff" indicates clearly not the object of his adoration, 
but that on which the sick old man sustained himself while wor- 
shipping God. 

CHAPTER XLVIII. 

VRS. 1 — 7. JOSEPH VISITS HIS FATHER, HEARING THAT HE IS SICK. 

(1689 b. c.) 

1 And it came to pass after these things, that one said to Joseph, 
Behold, thy father is sick : and he took with him his two sons Manas- 
seh and Ephraim. 

2 And one told Jacob, and said, Behold, thy son Joseph cometh 
unto thee : and Israel strengthened himself, and sat upon the bed. 

3 And Jacob said unto Joseph, God Almighty appeared unto me 
at Luz in the land of Canaan, and blessed me. 

4 and said unto me, Behold, I will make thee fruitful, and multi- 
ply thee, and I will make of thee a company of peoples, and will give 
this land to thy seed after thee for an everlasting possession. 

5 And now thy two sons, who were born unto thee in the land of 
Egypt before I came unto thee into Egypt, are mine : Ephraim and 
Manasseh, even as Reuben and Simeon, shall be mine. 

6 And thy issue, that thou begettest* after them, shall be thine; 
they shall be called after the name of their brethren in their inherit- 
ance. 

7 And as for me, when I came from Paddan, Rachel died by me in 
the land of Canaan in the way, when there was still some distance to 
come unto Ephrath : and I buried her there in the way to Ephrath 
(the same is Beth-lehem). 

*Or, hast begotten. 

On this occasion Jacob did not send to call Joseph, but he, 
hearing that his father was sick, took with him his two sons, 
Manasseh and Ephraim (who were then between twenty-two 
and twenty-five years of age, ch. 41: 50), and went to see him. 
Jacob also was notified of the visit of his son. He therefore 
made an effort (^strengthened himself), and sat up in bed. 
With firm faith in the promises of God, he related the revelation 
that he had in Bethel, or Luz, after his return from Padan-aram 
and the great promises that God there made to him personally, 
and to his descendants, — promises in comparison of which the 
worldly glories of Joseph and those of his two sons, as Egyptian 
princes, were in his esteem as worthless things. In this con- 
fidence, the aged patriarch disposes of that which his God 
had given him, with even greater confidence than he would dis- 
pose of his worldly estate, endowing the two sons of Joseph 



502 GENESIS 

with part thereof, as something incomparably better than all 
the brilliant prospects which they had, as princes of Egypt. 
Surely a triumphant faith in the divine promises, a justifying 
faith which overcomes the world, and rejoices in hope of the 
glory of God, was necessary in order that Jacob, a stranger 
in the land of Egypt, sick and near to die, could thus speak of 
the future blessings of those who have part in "the covenants of 
the promise!" Eph. 2: 12. 

It would seem that Joseph and the Egyptian princess, Asenath, 
had no children except these two; but to guard against the pos- 
sibility that they might have others, Jacob, as a prudent father, 
in this testamentary declaration of his last will, made provi- 
sion for such a case, adopting as his own the two sons whom 
Joseph had before the coming of his father, and arranging that 
any other sons he then had, or might afterwards have, should 
be incorporated with the tribe of either of the two. Truly sublime 
is the operation of faith in this aged servant of God, who thus 
disposed of the events of future ages, with the security and cer- 
tainty of one who has them already in hand! 

What he ordained, then, was that there should be thirteen 
tribes of Israel, counting each of the eleven brothers of Joseph 
as one, and Joseph himself as two; and thus in fact it happened; 
only, as the sacerdotal tribe of Levi had no part in the ter- 
ritorial division of the land of promise, but was scattered 
rather throughout 48 of the principal cities of the other tribes 
(Deut. 18: 1, 2; Num. 35: 1 — 7), the nation preserved always un- 
altered the number of "the twelve tribes of Israel." 

While he was thus disposing of the ample and sure inheritance 
which his God had given to him and to his posterity, it is 
truly touching to observe how the spirit of the old and almost 
dying patriarch turns in tenderness to the mother of Joseph, 
his beloved Rachel, whom he had buried on the road to Ephratah, 
or Bethlehem, forty years before, when he lacked but a little 
way of reaching that place. If Jacob was not the most amiable 
of the ancient patriarchs, none will deny him the title of having 
been the most faithful and fervent of lovers; — a rare thing among 
the Orientals. 

48: 8 — 16. jacob blesses Joseph, in the person op his two sons. 

(1689 b. c.) 

8 And Israel beheld Joseph's sons, and said, Who are these? 

9 And Joseph said unto his father, They are my sons, whom God 
hath given me here. And he said, Bring them, I pray thee, unto me, 
and I will bless them. 

10 Now the eyes of Israel were dim for age, so that he could not 



CHAPTER 48: 8—16 503 

?ee. And he brought them near unto him ; and he kissed them, and 
embraced them. 

11 And Israel said unto Joseph, I had not thought to see thy 
face : and, lo, God hath let me see thy seed also. 

12 And Joseph brought them out from between his knees ; and he 
bowed himself with his face to the earth. 

13 And Joseph took them both, Ephraim in his right hand to- 
ward Israel's left hand, and Manasseh in his left hand toward Israel's 
right hand, and brought them near unto him. 

14 And Israel stretched out his right hand, and laid it upon 
Ephraim's head, who was the younger, and his left hand upon Manas- 
seh's head, guiding his hands wittingly ; for Manasseh was the first- 
born. 

15 And he blessed Joseph, and said, The God before whom my 
fathers Abraham and Isaac did walk, the God who hath fed me ail 
my life long unto this day, 

16 the angel who hath redeemed me from all evil, bless the lads ; 
and let my name be named on them, and the name of my fathers 
Abraham and Isaac; and let them grow into a multitude in the 
midst of the earth. 

In all this time Jacob had not perceived the two sons of 
Joseph; for his eyes were dimmed through age, so that he could 
no longer see; but a movement of theirs, or something else 
made him at this moment conscious of their presence, and on 
asking who they were, Joseph informed him that they were 
the same of whom he had just been speaking, — "the children 
whom God has given me in this place": — according to Oriental 
usage, Joseph had not introduced them when he came in. Jacob 
therefore told him to bring them near to him, that he might 
bless them; and when he had done so, Jacob kissed and embraced 
them. It is evident that Jacob was sitting on the edge of a 
bed that was elevated above the floor; otherwise he would not 
have been able to perform these acts as they are related in 
the text. Every action of the old man is extremely natural 
here, even his exclamation, while he was embracing the two 
young men: "I had not thought to see thy face; and lo, God 
hath made me to see they seed also!" According to the Modern 
Spanish Version, Jacob was seated on his bed, and the two young 
men were standing between his knees. As he had kissed and 
embraced them, it is evident they could not then be between 
the knees of Joseph. Joseph, therefore, took them from between 
his father's knees, and with veneration the august governor of 
Egypt bowed himself before his father, not merely with the 
reverence which children owe to their parents, but to receive 
himself, together with his sons, the blessing of the prophet of 
God (comp. ch. 20: 7) and the heir of the promises. After 
this, he placed them in the proper position to receive the blessing, 
Manasseh, the first-born, towards the right hand of the patriarch, 
and Ephraim towards his left; and in this order he made them 
again approach his father. 



504 GENESIS 

It seems evident that it was the purpose and desire of Jacob 
to transfer to Joseph, his favorite son (the son of his only 
proper and legitimate wife; so rated in ch. 46: 19) the birthright 
of which Reuben had deprived himself by his shameful crime 
(ch. 49:3, 4); in which case Manasseh, in the succession of 
Joseph, would have been the chiefest of the tribes of Israel. 
But Joseph did not more than half execute his purpose, that 
being adverse to the purpose of God; with whom Judah (whose 
personal character was not comparable with that of Joseph) 
was, and was to continue, "the chief" or "prince" (see 1st 
Chron. 5: 2; 28: 4; comp. 49: 10); so that in the blessings pro- 
nounced in the following chapter, we see clearly that the prince- 
dom remained with Judah, although Jacob lavished on Joseph 
all the treasures of his personal affection. 

In any case, his purpose and desire were sufficiently marked 
for Ephraim (who obtained the pre-eminence above Manasseh, 
and like him, carried in his veins the noblest blood of Egypt) 
to make himself always, and even till the destruction of the 
rival kingdom of Israel, to continue to be, the proud, formidable, 
jealous and untiring rival of Judah. Isa. 11: 13. It is said in 
1st Chron. 5: 1, 2 that the birthright of Reuben was given to 
the sons of Joseph; of whom Jacob here gives the precedence 
to Ephraim. Yet it is certain that the birthright remained with 
Manasseh (Jos. 17: 1 — 5, 6), and he had two lots in the division 
of the promised land, one on each side of the river Jordan; but 
Ephraim always had, or always took, the precedence of him. 

Jacob, therefore, moved by the Spirit of inspiration, placed 
the younger above the elder, and put Ephraim before Manasseh, 
without his knowing the young men, so as to have any preference 
of his own, and without being able to see them, so as to dis- 
tinguish between the two. Crossing his hands (contrary to 
the plan and purpose of Joseph on presenting them before him 
in their proper order), he placed his right hand upon the head 
of Ephraim and his left upon that of Manasseh, and in 
this manner "he blessed Joseph" in blessing his two sons. 
The form of this blessing is very notable. It is not the Supreme 
Being whom he invokes, nor simply "God, Most High, possessor 
of the heavens and the earth" (ch. 14:22), but "the God be- 
fore whom my fathers, Abraham and Isaac did walk, the God 
who hath fed me [M. S. V., "who hath been my Shepherd," Heb. 
the one shepherding me] all my life long until this day, the 
Angel who hath redeemed me from all evil, bless the lads; and 
let my name be named upon them, and the name of my fathers 
Abraham and Isaac, and let them grow into a multitude in the 



CHAPTER 48: 17—22 505 

midst of the earth!" We live in days in which all sorts of 
people speak of God, and say they believe in him; it is there- 
fore important for us to learn from Jacob not to be deceived 
by appearances, but to make clear and plain who is the God 
we believe in. What is more important than to "believe in 
God," is to believe in the only true God, Jehovah, the God of 
Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob; the God 
and Father of Jesus Christ our Lord, "who spared not his own 
Son (his "only begotten Son"), but delivered him up for us all" 
that we "should not perish but have everlasting life." Rom. 
8: 32; John 3: 16. No other "God," is the living and true God. 
It is important to note that vrs. 15, 16 speak of "the Angel" 
as one and the same person as the God of Abraham, and of 
Isaac, and the God who was Jacob's Shepherd: in the Hebrew 
text, the same verb, in the singular number, governs all three. 
Jacob then designates and distinguishes him under three differ- 
ent aspects: first, the God who called Abraham, and before 
whom he and Isaac walked; second, the God who had been his 
Pastor (as David celebrates him in the 23rd Psalm) from his 
earliest existence; and third, "the Angel who hath redeemed 
me from all evil." See Note 22, on the "Angel of Jehovah," 
ch. 16: 7 — 10. "The Angel" (=the sent one) his Redeemer, 
points, as with the finger, to Gal. 4: 4, 5: "When the fulness 
of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, 
made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, 
that we might receive the adoption of sons." 

48: 17 — 22. Joseph insists on the primogeniture of manasseh; 
but jacob insists on assigning to ephraim the pre-eminence. 
(1689 b. c.) 

17 And when Joseph saw that his father laid his right hand upon 
the head of Ephraim, it displeased him : and he held up his father's 
hand, to remove it from Ephraim's head unto Manasseh's head. 

18 And Joseph said unto his father, Not so, my father ; for this is 
the first-born ; put thy right hand upon his head. 

19 And his father refused, and said, I know it, my son, I know it; 
he also shall become a people, and he also shall be great : howbeit his 
younger brother shall be greater than he, and his seed shall become a 
multitude of nations. 

20 And he blessed them that day, saying, In thee will Israel bless, 
saying, God make thee as Ephraim and as Manasseh : and he set 
Ephraim before Manasseh. 

21 And Israel said unto Joseph, Behold, I die ; but God will be 
with you, and bring you again unto the land of your fathers. 

22 Moreover I have given to thee one portion above thy brethren, 
which I took out of the hand of the Amorite with my sword and with 
my bow. < 

Jacob through malice and deceit had taken away from Esau 



506 GENESIS 

the birthright and the blessing: Joseph did not wish that by 
error of his father, Manasseh should suffer the loss of his, 
and he endeavored to correct what he took to be a mistake on 
his father's part; but the patriarch gave him to understand 
that he knew perfectly what he was doing, and that in fact, 
without regard to the merits or demerits of either of the two, 
but by the allotment of God, the younger should be greater 
than the elder. It is worthy of notice, how often, from the 
beginning, God has preferred the younger above the elder, al- 
though he himself established, as a general rule, the rights 
of primogeniture, in his word (Deut 21: 15 — 17): — Abel before 
Cain; Shem before Japheth; Abraham before Haran and Nahor; 
Isaac before Ishmael; Jacob before Esau; Joseph before Reu- 
ben; Ephraim before Manasseh; Moses before Aaron; David 
before his seven elder brothers, and Solomon before the other 
sons of David. Jacob continues blessing Joseph in the person 
of his sons, saying: "In thee will Israel bless, saying: God 
make thee as Ephraim, and as Manasseh!" 

With perfect calmness, Jacob added: "Behold I die; but God 
will be with you and bring you again unto the land of your 
fathers!" - It is evident that a triumphant faith in God and in his 
promises of coming redemption, had completely taken away from 
Jacob the fear of death. 

The last verse of the chapter is very difficult. We know that 
a double portion of the inheritance appertained to the rights 
of primogeniture (Deut. 21: 16, 17), which it seems that Jacob 
with half disguised words wished to transfer to his pious and 
favorite son, Joseph; we know also that in the division of the 
land, Joseph (that is to say, Ephraim and Manasseh) received 
three tribal divisions of the land, two to the west of the Jordan 
and one to the east, any one of the three being larger than 
the lot of either of the other tribes, with the sole exception 
of Judah; and in this sense, Ephraim and Manasseh, faring "as 
Reuben and Simeon," received each one a separate lot, and 
the additional one was given to Manasseh, who was really the 
first-born, and retained the birthright. 1 Chron. 5:1, 2. We 
know also that "the parcel of ground which Jacob gave to his 
son Joseph" (John 4: 5), was located near to Sichar, the ancient 
Shechem; so that this portion was not more than a small part 
of the territory of the tribe of Ephraim, of which Shechem was 
the principal city. We know still farther, that Jacob bought 
a parcel of ground in front of that city, from the sons of 
Hamor (ch. 33:19); which well corresponds with the parcel 
of ground where was, and still is found, Jacob's well. John 






CHAPTER 49: 1, 2 507 

4:5, 6. But Jacob's taking it out of the hand of the Amorite 
with his sword and with his bow, is something of which we 
have no other notice in the word of God, it being morally im- 
possible, that he refers to the sword of Simeon and Levi, and 
the horrible reprisals which they took in that city for the dis- 
honor done to their sister. Chapter 34. It seems most probable, 
though not elsewhere mentioned, that Jacob, having withdrawn 
from that possession which he had bought, the Amorites oc- 
cupied it; and refusing afterwards to give it up to Jacob, he 
found himself obliged to cast them out by force. 

CHAPTER XLIX. 

VES. 1, 2. JACOB SKETCHES PROPHETICALLY FOB HIS SONS THE CHAR- 
ACTEE AND FUTURE LOT OF THEIR RESPECTIVE TRIBES. (1689 B. C.) 

1 And Jacob called unto his sons, and said : Gather yourselves 
together, that I may tell you that which shall befall you in the latter 
days. 

2 Assemble yourselves, and hear, ye sons of Jacob ; 
And hearken unto Israel your father. 

This chapter is not properly a chapter of blessings, although 
vr. 28 so calls it in a general way; because the three first 
sons received no blessing at all, but rather a malediction. Vr. 1 
properly characterizes it as a declaration of the things that 
were to happen to them "in days to come" as reads the Mod. 
Span. Version.* The form is poetic, and like poetry, and im- 
passioned poetry, it is to be interpreted. Aside from the poetic 
conception, and from that exaggeration, or poetic license, which 
Is proper to all Oriental poetry, Hebrew poetry is characterized 
by the repetition of the same thought two, three or even four 
times, in different forms, or by contrasting therewith the op- 
posite form of statement; with the object of explaining, con- 
firming or giving emphasis to the principal affirmation. 

It has been well said that the poetic form, in all languages, 
consists in repetition — the repetition of metrical cadences, the 
repetition of asonance and consonance, in the final syllables 
of the "verses," or the repetition of a certain number and arrange- 
ment of accents in each line. None of these things are found, 
except very rarely, in Hebrew poetry, but rather, as just said, 
the repetition of the same thought in different forms of words, 

♦Conant's translation, "in after days" is certainly better than "in the 
latter days" as given by tbe A. V., R. V. and the Am. Revision. Most 
unfortunately, as I think, the Revisers did not always regard it as the 
translator's business to put the meaning of the writer in easy reach of 
the reader. — Tr. 



508 GENESIS 

or contrasting it with an opposite form of statement. See Ex, 
15: 1 — IS, and comments. 

49: 3, 4. BrcBE>- (first son of Leah). 

3 Reuben, thru are my first-born, my might, ani the beginning cf 

my strength : 
The pre-eminence of dignity, ani the pre-eminence cf rower. 

4 Boiling over as water, thou shait not have the r re-eminence ; 
Because thou wentest up to thy father's bed: 

Then dehledst thou it: he went up to my ccuch. 

By birth, pre-eminence in dignity and power was his; but 
by Ms unbridled passirns he cast himself down headlong, and 
fell into merited contempt. '"Boiling over as water'' elegantly 
expresses the overflow of those sensual nassitns which caused 
his great sin against his father, cf incest ana adultery. In 
going up to his father's bet. he defiled it: cr. acccraing tc 
another rendering, instead of ""then def least thou (it)." we 
have: "then than maziest 'thyself' vile/' Ana both senses are 
equally appropriate: then it was that he trezizzitatea himself 
from his pre-eminence of dignity and power. Ch. 25: 21, 22. 

Reuben was a man of goo zi ana humane instincts, and for 
these he distinguished himself amrng all his brethren when 
Joseph was sold and carried into Egyrzt (ch. 27: 22., 2?); but 
he was impassioned and inconsiderate, and for this cause he 
offered that his father, wiight J: ill two of his four sons if he 
would entrust Eenj'amin to him and he shcula fail to bring 
him back; he was of a weak character, and so his brethren 
and his father made little account of his words ana offers; 
he was also unchaste, and a slave cf sensual passirns. And 
the characteristics of the father, it wonld seem, were perpetuated 
(as it often happens) in his descendants. The tribe ofRenhen 
never attained to any distinction in Israel: it never produced 
one distinguished man: and Deborah in her song of victory 
mocked and upbraided the warriors of Reuben, who in the 
of battle "sat among the sheep-folds to hear the bleatings >i 
pipings) of the flock"'; and their "great determinations of heart" 
came to end "in great deliberations of heart." Judg. 3: 15, 16 
Mod. Span. Ver. 

49: 5—7. snrzors- a/>-d nm r serin: an: third sons of Leah). 

5 Simeon and Levi are brethren: 
Weapons :: violence me their swords.* 

6 O my soul, come not thou into their council: 
Unto their assembly, way glory, be not ihou unire : 



CHAPTER 49: 5—7 509 

For in their anger they slew a man,f 
And in their self-will they hocked an ox.J 
7 Cursed be their anger, for it was fierce ; 
And their wrath, for it was cruel : 
I will divide them in Jacob, 
And scatter them in Israel. 

fOr, men. %Or, oxen. 

Several of the expressions used here are of doubtful significa- 
tion. Instead of "compacts," others say "arms" or "swords"; 
and instead of "they hocked oxen," others say: "they digged 
down a wall." But the general sense comes to the same thing, 
although the specifications be different. The violence done to their 
sister Dinah made them unsheath their swords; but it did not 
justify or excuse the atrocities which they committed, in spite of 
the honorable reparation which, generously and without stint, 
Shechem and his father Hamor offered to make. It seems that 
the two were distinguished by the ardent temperament, jealous 
and revengeful, which on this occasion was guilty of such folly 
and madness that nothing but the prompt interposition of God was 
able to save the encampment of Jacob from utter extermination 
by the outraged inhabitants of the surrounding cities. Ch. 34: 30; 
35: 5. The curse which their father pronounced on them pro- 
phetically was 

"I will divide them in Jacob, 
and scatter them in Israel." 

This was fulfilled in a very different manner in the two tribes. 
It is common in our Biblical maps, to locate the tribe of Simeon 
on the south of the tribe of Judah; but Josh. 19: 1, 9, tells us 
expressly that the inheritance of the tribe of Judah was too large, 
and that the lot of the tribe of the children of Simeon fell to them 
"in the midst of the inheritance of the children of Judah" ; and 
after the division of the nation into two kingdoms, we are told 
that in days of Asa and of Hezekiah, "strangers of Ephraim, of 
Manasseh, and of Simeon" and of the cities of these tribes, came 
up to Jerusalem; giving us to understand that a part of Simeon, 
separated from the part which was in Judah, remained attached 
to the kingdom of the north (2 Chron. 15: 9 and 34: 6) ; so that 
Simeon seems never to have had a proper and independent tribal 
existence. 

In regard to the tribe of Levi, the case was different. On ac- 
count of his ardent zeal, and his impassioned defence of the cause 
of Moses and of God, at the critical period of the worship of the 
golden calf (Ex. 32: 25, and Deut. 33: 8 — 11), their curse was 
turned into a blessing; and though they were in fact "divided in 
Jacob, and scattered in Israel," they were thus parceled out the 



510 GENESIS 

better to perform the office of priests and Levites among the peo- 
ple; occupying forty-eight important cities scattered through the 
entire nation, rather than a distinct territory which was properly 
their own. Num. 35: 7, 8; Josh. 21: 1—42. 

49: 8 — 12. judah (fourth son of Leah). 

8 Judah, thee shall thy brethren praise : 

Thy hand shall be on the neck of thine enemies; 
Thy father's sons shall bow down before thee. 

9 Judah is a lion's whelp ; 

From the prey, my son, thou art gone up : 
He stooped down, he couched as a lion, 
And as a lioness, who shall rouse him up? 

10 The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, 
Nor the ruler's staff from between his feet, 
Until Shiloh come : 

And unto him shall the obedience of the peoples be. 

11 Binding his foal unto the vine, 

And his ass's colt unto the choice vine ; 
He hath washed his garments in wine, 
And his vesture in the blood of grapes : 

12 His eyes shall be red with wine, 
And his teeth white with milk. 

It is evident that the moral character and personal deserts of 
Judah had little to do with his pre-eminence among his brethren, 
or that of his tribe among the "thousands of the ten thousands of 
Israel." The part which he took in the act of treachery perpe- 
trated against Joseph, and his slow intervention to prevent their 
taking his life (ch. 37: 26, 27), although they manifest nerve, 
reveal also much hardness of heart; and his own history makes it 
clear that in his private life he was little better than a pagan, and 
that the general character of his immediate family agreed well 
with their gentile origin. See chapter 38. But whatever may 
have been his moral and religious' defects, Judah was born to be a 
prince among men, and his brethren and his father always recog- 
nized his ascendency. Ch. 37: 27; 43: 3, 4, 8, 9. "Judah, thee 
shall thy brethren praise!" and these same personal endowments 
were perpetuated in his posterity. The tribe of Judah was always 
of recognized predominence. See Judg. 1: 2; 20: 18. It is not 
necessary to analyze the expressions in which Jacob, in spite of 
his open partiality for Joseph, celebrates the distinguished 
personal endowments of Judah and the distinctive traits of his 
tribe. As poetic and hyperbolical embellishments they are very 
beautiful, and they are too clear to need any explanation. 

But vr. 10 contains one of the grandest of Messianic prophecies, 
according to the agreement of Jews and Christians, and well 
merits a particular attention. Judah was to be the royal tribe, and 



CHAPTER 49: 8— 12 511 

"From him the sceptre should not depart, 
nor the ruler's staff from between his feet, 
until Shiloh (=the Pacificator) come; 
and to him shall be (rendered) the obedience of the 
peoples (or nations)." 

There is no dispute between Jews and Christians with regard 
to the terms employed in this great prophecy, and little or none in 
regard to their meaning. The Jewish Version of Isaac Leeser, 
says: "Until Shiloh come; and unto him shall the gathering 
of the people be" — a translation which he takes textually from the 
Common English Version. The Revised Version translates, more 
correctly perhaps: 

"Until Shiloh come; 

and unto him shall the obedience of the peoples be." 
The only passage, except this, in which the word translated "obedi- 
ence" occurs, is Prov. 30: 17, where it is translated "and disdains 
to obey his mother." As to who "Shiloh" is, there is also no dis- 
pute. All confess that it is the promised Messiah, of whom the 
Jews say that he is yet to come; and the Christians, that he came 
once to suffer for us, and will come the second time to reign 
over us, and to give to his people the promised inheritance of glory 
and immortality. Heb. 9: 27, 28; Matt. 16: 27; 25: 34, 41. Of the 
various senses which are given to the word "Shiloh," the most 
probable and the best, in my opinion, is that which is found in 
the text of the Modern Spanish Version, "the Pacificator" or Peace- 
Maker — Prince of Peace. Isaiah 9: 6. 
Of him many Scriptures say: 

"Unto us a Child is born, 

unto us a Son is given; 

and the government shall be upon his shoulder; 

and his name shall be called: 'Wonderful, Counselor, 

Mighty God, Everlasting Father [or better, "Father of the 
Eternal Age"], Prince of Peace.' 

Of the increase of his government and of peace there shall 
be no end, upon the throne of David and upon his 
kingdom," etc. Isa. 9: 6, 7. 

"He shall speak peace to the nations.'" Zech. 9 : 10. 

"In his days shall the righteous flourish, 

and abundance of peace until the moon be no more" 

Ps. 72: 7. 

"Glory to God in the highest, 

and on earth peace, 

Good will among men!" Luke 2: 14, 



512 GENESIS 

With regard to the second part — "to him shall he rendered the 
obedience of the nations," it will he sufficient to cite Ps. 72: 8 — 11: 

"He shall have dominion also from sea to sea, 

and from the River unto the ends of the earth. 

They that dwell in the wilderness shall how before him; 

and his enemies shall lick the dust. 

The kings of Tarshish and of the Isles shall bring presents; 

the kings of Sheba and Seba shall offer gifts. 

Yea all kings shall fall down before him; 

all nations shall serve him." 

And Phil. 2: 9—11: "Wherefore also God hath highly exalted 
him, and hath given unto him the name which is above every 
name; that in the name of Jesus, every knee should bow, of 
things in heaven and things on earth, and things under the earth, 
and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, 
to the glory of God the Father. 

And Matt. 6: 10: "Thy kingdom come! Thy will be done, as 
in heaven, so on earth!" 

In the parable of the Tares of the field, Jesus himself teaches us 
that this will happen, not under the Christian dispensation in 
which we live, but "at the end of Age," in "the last day," when 
"the Son of man shall send forth his angels, and they shall 
gather out of his kingdom, all things that offend, and them that 
do iniquity, and shall cast them into the furnace of fire. Then 
shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their 
father. He that hath ears to hear let him hear!" Matt. 13: 41 
—43. 

Others understand that "Shiloh" (suppressing the h, which 
is not essential) is the same as "Siloah," or "Siloam," and 
signifies "the sent one" John 9: 7 — "Him whom the Father 
sanctified and sent into the world" (John 10:36); and this 
sense is good; for in fact, in one form or another, Christ calls 
himself or is called, the sent one more than sixty times in 
the New Testament. The phrase which follows may also be 
translated as in the English Version: "And to him shall the 
gathering of the peoples (or nations) be" — a legitimate and 
proper sense, which will be best explained by examining Ps. 
102: 22; Isa. 11: 10—12; John 11: 32; and 2 Thes. 2: 1. This 
also will be in the last day, — the day of the Great Assembly (Luke 
13: 29) — and thenceforward forever. 

No reader should allow to pass unobserved the fact that 
6ince "Shiloh," the "Sent One," or the "Pacificator," has come, 
"the sceptre has passed from Judah, and the governor (or law- 



CHAPTER 49 : 13 513 

giver) from between his feet"; and for nineteen centuries the 
tribe of Judah has not had even a recognized existence. 

49: 13. zebulun (sixth son of Leah). 

13 Zebulun shall dwell at the haven of the sea; 
And he shall be for a haven of ships ; 
And his border shall be upon Sidon. 

Some of our maps locate the tribe of Zebulun as lying on 
the coast of the Mediterranean, and others as lying on the 
Sea of Galilee (— Chinnereth, Cinneroth or Gennesaret). It 
seems to me that there ought not to be any doubt on this 
point, when we observe that Matthew says that Capernaum 
(which was situated upon the Sea of Galilee), was "in the 
confines (or borders) of Zebulun and Naphtalim" (=Naph- 
tali) ; and that Jesus in establishing himself there (having 
abandoned Nazareth, where they wished to cast him headlong 
down a precipice), fulfilled the ancient prophecy of Isaiah, re- 
garding the land of Zebulun and the land of Nephthalim. Matt. 
4: 13, 15, and Isa. 9:1, 2. The confines of these two tribes 
met on the Sea of Galilee, near to the city of Capernaum; al- 
though in the days of our Lord the boundary lines of the tribe3 
had for a long time been obliterated. The names of the two 
always go associated together in Scripture, being contiguous 
the one to the other; and although sons of different mothers, 
it would seem that both they and their descendants were very 
much alike in disposition and character, — valiant and warlike. 
Of them Deborah sang in her triumphal song: 

"Zebulun was a people that jeoparded their lives unto the 

death, 
and Naphtali, upon the high places of the field." 

Judg. 5: 18. 

The occupations and dangers of their beautiful sea of Cin- 
neroth (or Lake of Gennesaret), contributed to make them 
valiant, like Simon Peter and his companions, in the days of 
Jesus; who were almost all of them of these two tribes. The 
same renown of valor is given to Zebulun and Naphtali, among 
those who attended at the inauguration of the kingdom of David 
in Hebron. 1 Chron. 12: 33, 34. 

With regard to the boundaries of Zebulun, the historian 
Josephus says (Antiq. 5: 1, Sec. 22), that the tribe of Zebulun 
extended from the Lake of Gennesaret as far as Carmel and 
the Mediterranean; which gives a very satisfactory significa- 
tion to what is said here, "his side (or border) shall be upon 
(or by) Sidon"; not the city of this name, which was 50 miles 



514 GENESIS 

farther to the north, but the country of Phenicia, which in 
all its length, was called the country "of the Sidonians"; Josh. 
13: 6; Judg. 18: 7 (see page 128); and with the extreme southern 
point of which (according to Josephus) Zebulun ought to have 
touched, or almost touched, if it reached as far as Carmel and 
the Mediterranean Sea. 

[The failure of most of the tribes to "drive out the Canaan- 
ites" and in some cases even to take possession of the territory 
assigned them by Joshua (see Judg. chs. 1 and 2), has come to 
render impossible an accurate delineation of the boundaries of 
the several tribes; to which difficulty must be added the fact 
that after the Babylonish captivity the tribal divisions disap- 
peared altogether: so that no two of our Biblical maps are 
agreed as to what they originally were. To Asher (see com- 
ment on vr. 20) was assigned by Joshua the plain of Phenicia, in- 
cluding "the great Sidon." Josh. 19: 28, 29. But it seems that 
they never attempted to take this part of their possession: so 
that their territory proper lay in the mountains between Pheni- 
cia, on the west, and Naphtali, on the east. — Tr.] 

49: 14, 15. issachar (fifth son of Leah). 

14 Issachar is a strong ass, 

Couching down between the sheepfolds : 

15 And he saw a resting-place that it was good, 
And the land that it was pleasant ; 

And he bowed his shoulder to bear, 
And became a servant under taskwork. 

Of Issachar (as of Zebulun, Napthali, Asher, etc.), we know 
nothing personally. The territory of Issachar was between 
Zebulun on the north and Manasseh on the south, and between 
the Jordan on the east and the mountain range of Carmel 
on the west; and it was considered one of the best and most 
fertile in Canaan, to which circumstance is attributed, in part 
their pacific and industrious character, more disposed to carry 
burdens than to carry arms. It is difficult to determine sat- 
isfactorily the meaning of the last phrase. As the original 
signifies to pay tribute as well as to bear burdens, some have 
supposed that Issachar was so devoted to labor and to the arts 
of peace, that he preferred to pay tribute rather than to ex- 
pose himself to the toils and dangers of military service. But 
it does not seem that the men of Issachar were lacking in 
valor. Deborah celebrates their readiness to take up arms, 
and their courage in battle; and they are mentioned with dis- 
tinction among those who came up armed to make David king. 
Judg. 5: 15; 1 Chron. 12: 32. Others suppose that the words 



CHAPTER 49: 16—18 515 

mean nothing more than that they cheerfully submitted them- 
selves to labor and toil as arduous as that of slaves. 

49: 16, 17. dan (first son of Bilhah, handmaid of Rachel). 

16 Dan shall judge his people, 
As one of the tribes of Israel. 

17 Dan shall be a serpent in the way, 
An adder in the path, 

That biteth the horse's heels, 

So that his rider falleth backward. 

The name of Dan signifies "Judge," "judging," or "judged" (ch. 
30: 6), and to this fact the blessing of his father alludes, in 
saying "that Dan shall judge his peoples (—the tribes of his 
nation), as any one of the tribes of Israel." M. S. V. Being 
the son of Rachel's slave (and the first of the four sons of 
the two maid-servants) it might be supposed that he would 
occupy a position subordinate to the free-born sons, but the 
words of Jacob indicate that he would be in all respects their 
equal. It is supposed also that there is here a covert allusion 
to Sampson, who was of this tribe, and was in some respects 
the most famous and popular of the judges of Israel. Judges, 
chapters 13 — 16. Dan had only one son (ch. 47:23); but at 
the time of the exodus from Egypt he and his servants and 
dependants (who were counted with those of his tribe) num- 
bered 62,600; — the most numerous of all the tribes, with the 
exception of Judah. In the march through the desert, the en- 
campment of Dan, which included the tribes of Dan, Asher and 
Naphtali, formed the rearguard of the encampment of Israel, 
and was the strongest of the four divisions, with the exception 
of that of Judah, which formed the vanguard. As Dan was 
the most numerous of all the tribes, except Judah, we do not 
understand why he should be compared to "a serpent in the 
way, and an adder in the path"; since cunning and craft are 
the ordinary recourse of the weak. Some believe that allu- 
sion is here made to the incident of the expedition of the 600 
Danites, who conquered for themselves a possession between 
Sidon and Damascus (Judg. 18:7, 28, 29); whicn came to 
be the extreme northern limit of Israel (Judg. 20: 1; 1 Sam. 
3: 20) ; the phrase "from Dan to Beersheba" representing the ex- 
treme dimensions of the country from north to south. 

49: 18. JACOB'S SIGH. 
18 I have waited for thy salvation, O Jehovah. 
In the midst of these figures and emblems of wars, acts of 
treachery and human strife, the patriarch stopped a moment to 



516 GENESIS 

heave a sigh, sorrowful and prolonged, for the salvation of 
God. I believe that this cannot have more than one meaning; 
to wit, that Jacob in common with the pious servants of God 
before Christ, just the same as after Christ, longed, and under 
circumstances of distress and in times of public and private 
calamity, longed with vehemence, for the promised salvation, 
which Christ with his blood has brought for us; which the 
people of God still wait for, and will have to continue waiting 
for (in heaven no less than on earth), until Christ shall come 
in power and glory to bring us the promised "salvation," and 
to give us "the kingdom." The sighed-for "REST yet remaineth 
for the people of God." Heb. 4: 9; 9: 28; Matt. 25: 34; 1 Thes. 
1: 10; 2 Thes. 1: 7—10; Rom. 8: 23; Rev. 11: 18, and 22: 12. 
Thus David: 

"Oh that the salvation of Israel were come out of Zion! 
when God bringeth back the captivity of his people, 
Jacob shall rejoice, and Israel shall be glad." Ps. 53: 6. 

So Moses: 

"Return, oh Jehovah; how long? 

and let it repent thee concerning thy servants! (or, "be 
sorry for thy servants!" M. S. V.) 

Oh satisfy us early with thy mercy, 

that we may rejoice and be glad all our days! 

Make us glad according to the days wherein thou hast af- 
flicted us, 

and the years wherein we have seen evil!" Ps. 90: 13 — 16. 

So Zacharias, at the circumcision of his son, the precursor 
of the Messiah, when "his mouth was opened and his tongue was 
loosed": 

"Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel; 

for he hath visited and wrought redemption for his people, 

and hath raised up a horn of salvation for us 

in the house of his servant David 

(as he spake by the mouth of his holy prophets which have 

been since the world began) ; 
salvation from our enemies, and from the hand of all that 

hate us; 
to show mercy towards our fathers, 
and to remember his holy covenant; 
the oath which he sware to Abraham our father, 
to grant unto us that we, being delivered out of the hand 

of our enemies, 



CHAPTER 49: 19, 20 517 

should serve him without fear, 

in holiness and righteousness before him all our days." 

Luke 1: 66—75. 
So Paul also: "And not only so, hut ourselves also, who 
have the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within 
ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of 
our body." Rom. 8: 23. Paul, in heaven, no longer groans, but 
he is still "waiting" — waiting "with Christ," while he is "wait- 
ing (^"expecting") till his enemies be made his footstool." Heb. 
10: 13. 

49: 19. gad (first son of Zilpah, handmaid of Leah). 

19 Gad, a troop* shall press upon him ; 
But he shall press upon their heel. 

*Ueb. gedud, a marauding band. 

As there was nothing special to say of Gad, who acted no 
considerable part among the sons, nor among the tribes, of 
Israel, we have once more a play upon his name — "Gad," which 
had two significations: (1) "good fortune," and thus expressed 
the joy of Leah at having a son by her servant Zilpah, whom 
she had given to her husband as a wife, in the ardent competi- 
tion which she had with her sister Rachel, in the matter of 
giving sons to Jacob (ch. 36: 11); and (2) "a marauding troop," 
or guerrilla band; in which sense the word is used here. Gad 
was one of the three tribes which had their inheritance on the 
eastern side of the river Jordan, and consequently were the most 
exposed to the attacks of invading enemies, and also to the 
guerrillas and marauding bands of the Ammonites, the Moabites, 
the Edomites and other neighboring enemies. These tribes also 
were the first which were deported by the Assyrians under 
Tiglathpilezer. 1 Chron. 5: 26. 

49: 20. asher (second son of Zilpah, handmaid of Leah). 

20 Out of Asher his bread shall be fat, 
And he shall yield royal dainties. 

To Asher (z= "Happy") fell as his inheritance a narrow strip 
of land, fifty miles long, interposed between Phenicia, on the 
west and the tribes of Naphtali and Zebulun on the east and 
south. On the north it reached to "the great Sidon," and on the 
south "to Carmel near to the Great Sea" — the Mediterranean 
(Josh. 19: 26, 28), which seems to be in disagreement with 
what Josephus says about it. See comment on vr. 13. His ter- 
ritory was considered one of the best in Israel, and corresponded 
with his name = Happy, or Fortunate. 



518 GENESIS 

49: 21. naphtali (second son of Bilhah, handmaid of Rachel). 

21 Naphtali is a hind let loose: 
He giveth goodly words. 

Neither of him nor his tribe have we notice of anything worthy 
of mention, except what has been already said in connection with 
the tribe of Zebulun. His territory, in the division of the land, 
lay very far to the north, bounded on the S. E. and south by the 
Sea of Cinneroth (or Lake of Gennesaret) and the north of Zebu- 
lun, and extending northward very far into Mount Lebanon. His 
lands were naturally very much broken, but the scenery was of 
the most grand and beautiful character, and its valleys among 
the most fertile of Israel; and like mountaineers in general, his 
people were valiant. The "hind (or gazelle) let loose" is a 
beautiful figure of the free and independent spirit of the inhabit- 
ants of a picturesque country of mountains and valleys; and in 
fact, as we have already said, the people of Naphtali go always 
associated with Zebulun, as being among the most courageous of 
the warriors of Israel. In the war against Jabin king of Canaan, 
and particularly in the battle of Mount Tabor, Barak (who was 
of Kadesh-Naphtali), the assistant and lieutenant-general of the 
prophetess Deborah, made forever famous the name of his tribe 
by the part which he took in that memorable battle. Judg. chs. 
4 and 5. Of the "goodly words," for which he was to be famous, 
we know nothing; although a land of beautiful valleys and pic- 
turesque mountains, and which lay at the foot of the majestic 
Lebanon, might well have awakened the muse of more than one 
poet, famous in his day. 

49: 22—26. Joseph (first son of Rachel). 

22 Joseph is a fruitful bough, 

A fruitful bough by a fountain ; 
His branches run over the wall. 

23 The archers have sorely grieved him, 
And shot at him, and persecuted him : 

24 But his bow abode in strength, 

And the arms of his hands were made strong, 

Bv the hands of the Mighty One of Jacob 

(From thence is the shepherd, the stone of Israel), 

25 Even bv the God of thy father, who shall help thee, 
And by the Almighty, who shall bless thee, 

With blessings of heaven above, 

Blessings of the deep that coucheth beneath, 

Blessings of the breasts, and of the womb. 

26 The blessings of thy father 

Have prevailed above the blessings of my progenitors 
Unto the utmost bound of the everlasting hills : 
They shall be on the head of Joseph, 

And on the crown of the head of him that was separate from* 
his brethren. 
*Or, that is prince among. {M. 8. V., the Nazarite among.] 



CHAPTER 49: 27 519 

On reaching the name of his beloved Joseph, the handsome 
son of his beautiful and proper wife, it seems that Jacob laid 
aside the office of prophet, which we see conspicuous in the 
blessing of Judah, and gave loose rein to his poetic muse, and 
to the warm and out-gushing affections of his heart. There is 
here nothing to explain, nor indeed to comment upon, except, 
First, the words "shepherd and stone of Israel"; which some 
translate "by the name of the shepherd," etc.; and others sup- 
pose they see in them an allusion to that "Jacob's Stone" which 
figures in so many fabulous stories of different nations; — ex- 
travagances which it is not worth our while to relate here. See 
the comment on ch. 28: 18 — 22. In a Christian sense, both "shep- 
herd" and "stone" have their highest fulfilment in Jesus Christ. 
See John 10: 11; 1 Pet. 5: 4, with Matt. 22: 42; Eph. 2: 20; 1 
Pet. 2: 6. And in the usage of the Old Testament, it is Jehovah 
himself, under the aspect of the Redeemer of his people, who is 
the Shepherd and the Stone. See ch. 48: 15, 16; Ps. 23: 1; 80: 
1, with Ps. 118: 22; Isa. 28: 16. And Second, the words "him 
that was separate from his brethren" (Heb. the nazarite of his 
brethren), in vr. 26. His personal character from a child and his 
subsequent elevation as viceroy of Egypt, separated him from 
them, placing him in a far higher plane. The word "nazarite" 
signifies separated, consecrated to God; for which reason the word 
separated (in the Modern Spanish Version) is supplied in 
italics, in order to make plain the meaning of Nazarite: "The 
Nazarite, separated from among his brethren." Among the 
Israelites, "nazarite" was always a noble title. Lam. 4:7; 
Amos. 2: 11, 12. In this outpouring of his heart, Jacob alludes 
beautifully to the cruel persecutions which Joseph had suffered 
on the part of his elder brothers, to the help of God which 
had never forsaken him, and to the honors and glories which ex- 
alted and adorned his days of prosperity. 

49: 27. benjamin (second son of Rachel). 

27 Benjamin is a wolf that raveneth : 

In the morning he shall devour the prey, 
And at even he shall divide the spoil. 

Benjamin (—Son of the right hand) — a name which his 
father gave him instead of Benoni (=Son of my sorrow), which 
his mother gave him when she died, in the act of giving him birth 
— must have been a great favorite with his father to merit such a 
name; for his birth caused him as bitter pangs as to the mother, 
and forty years longer. See comments on ch. 48: 7. Of his char- 
acter and personal deeds we know nothing; for every notice 



520 GENESIS 

that we have of him shows him in a passive rather than in an 
active form. On going down into Egypt he had more sons 
than any of his brothers (ch. 46: 21), giving promise thereby 
that his tribe would be the most numerous of them all; but 
it did not so happen; although it is important for us to remem- 
ber that not the largest number of sons but of servants was the 
important consideration in determining the increase of popula- 
tion in the different tribes in Egypt. Dan went down with only 
one son, and he came up with 62,700, capable of bearing arms; 
Benjamin seemingly entered with ten sons (unless part of them 
were born later), and he went up with 35,400. Ch. 46: 23 and 
21; Num. 1: 38 and 36. In the sad days of oppression and 
hard bondage which befell the people in Egypt, masters and 
servants (who were all circumcised Israelites, ch. 17: 12, 13) 
were confounded together, being all alike the slaves of Pharaoh. 
Jacob and his sons went down into Egypt with an immense 
multitude of servants; but we are not told how many servants 
or slaves (see Ex. 21: 21, 26, 27) they brought up from thence: 
all of them, including Moses and Aaron, were slaves there. Ex. 
5: 4. 

The words of the prophecy give us to understand that Ben- 
jamin, or rather, the tribe descended from him, would be 
warlike and even cruel in his instincts and character; and in 
fact his zeal in defending those "sons of Belial," in Gibeah, 
who made themselves as base as the sinners of Sodom (Judg. 
20: 12 — 14), and his daring and valor in maintaining their 
defence against the united strength of all Israel, accredit at the 
same time his valor, his lack of good morals, and his want 
of sound sense; for such a heroic defence of those villains 
resulted in the almost complete destruction of their tribe. Judg. 
21: 16, 17. In all this he manifested the characteristics of 
the wolf rather than the lion. Of this tribe also was Saul, 
the first king of Israel; and the tenacious purpose of the Ben- 
jamites, in a seven years' struggle, to oppose David and main- 
tain the cause of "the house of Saul," shows in a strong light 
the same indications of a valor that was not tempered with 
discretion. 2 Sam. 2: 8; 3:1; 16:3, 5—11; 20:1. 

49: 28 — 33. the death of jacob. (1689 b. c.) 

28 All these are the twelve tribes of Israel : and this is it that 
their father spake unto them and blessed them : every one according 
to his blessing he blessed them. 

29 And he charged them, and said unto them, I am to be gathered 
unto my people : bnrv me with my fathers in the cave that is in the 
field of Ephron the Hittite, 

30 in the cave that is in the field of Machpelah, which is before 



CHAPTER 49: 28—33 521 

Mamre, in the land of Canaan, which Abraham bought with the field 
from Ephron the Hittite for a possession of a burying-place. 

31 There they buried Abraham and Sarah his wife ; there they 
buried Isaac and Rebekah his wife : and there I buried Leah — 

32 the field and the cave that is therein, which was purchased 
from the children of Heth. 

33 And when Jacob made an end of charging his sons, he gathered 
up his feet into the bed, and yielded up the ghost, and was gathered 
unto his people. 

Only in the sense of last prophetic words can we call this 
"the blessing with which their father blessed them"; for Reu- 
ben, Simeon and Levi received from him no blessing at all, 
but rather the opposite. All the circumstances of the death 
of Jacob were notable. He had been for a considerable time 
weak and infirm; but this poem, his last prophetic words, re- 
veals intellectual gifts of a high order, and a force and vigor 
very rarely seen in a dying old man. After pronouncing these 
words with supernatural vigor, which God doubtless imparted 
to him, he made the necessary arrangements for his own burial, 
having already arranged with Joseph the most important part. 
Ch. 47: 29 — 41. This ended, he gathered up his feet into his 
bed, and with the cessation of the prophetic afflatus, which had 
invigorated him for this supreme effort, it seems as if in the 
act, he breathed out his last breath and "was gathered to his 
people" {Heo. peoples). We have already treated of the signi- 
fication of this phrase in the comment on ch. 25: 8, and 35: 29. 
It is certain that it cannot refer to his burial; for all that 
happened in one and the same day, whereas he was not buried 
for nearly three months after. Ch. 50: 3 — 10. 

It is very evident that this expectation of being "gathered to 
his people," "to his peoples," or "to his fathers," came to mitigate 
not a little the natural horror of death, in those times. One's 
going to his fathers, or to his peoples, would be to a dying man 
like returning to the bosom of the separated family. It lacked 
very much of the Christian hope, and in its popular use it was 
but natural that no discrimination was made between good and 
bad men (pp. 298, 299); but in any case it was something; and 
it clearly manifests the universal belief in those days in an 
existence after death: [ — "a hereafter" ; as is so forcibly ex- 
pressed even in the words of the false prophet Balaam: 

"Let me die the death of the righteous, 

and let my last end be like his." Num. 23: 10. 

"Last end" is the rather unfortunate translation of a Hebrew 
word which means literally the hereafter: "let my hekeatteb 
be like his"; as read in the Modern Spanish Version. — Tr.] 



522 GENESIS 

The last days of this venerable patriarch were seemingly 
his best days and the most tranquil, near to his beloved Joseph. 
Not only so, but we see the work of his conversion and sane* 
tification carried to its culminating point, as we do not see 
it in the life and character of any other Biblical character. 
As before said, and it bears repetition, I find a great comfort in 
the phrase so often used in the Bible: "the God of Abraham, 
and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob." Abraham was 
by nature and by his personal habits "a gentleman" in the 
highest sense of the word; one of "nature's noblemen." And in 
whatever modern society he might have been placed, he would 
have passed for a perfect gentleman; and by divine grace 
Abraham was the most noble type of a believing man, — "the 
father of believers." Gal. 3:9, 29 and Rom. 4: 16— 18. But 
who and how many of us can either by nature or by grace 
aspire to the character and condition of an Abraham? Isaac 
was a weak, pacific, inoffensive man, indolent, and apparently 
too fond of good living (ch. 25: 28; 27: 4, and comments); and 
who passed apparently the last 45 years of his long life in 
darkness and silence. Divine grace without doubt wrought very 
effectually in him for the perfecting of his weak character, in 
those long years of sad silence. It is a very great comfort for 
the many Isaacs that there are in the family of God, lacking 
in fibre and resolution, vacillating and of a weak character; — it 
is for all such a great comfort that Jehovah, the only true God, 
is not merely the God of the princely Abraham, but the God 
of the weak Isaac also. Jacob was undoubtedly the least 
amiable of all the good men whom Scripture presents to our 
view. His disposition and natural character always suffer 
when he is contrasted with the generous, dashing and valiant 
Esau. And on the religious side, I do not believe that he com- 
menced to know himself, and to seek the favor and protection 
of the God of Abraham and of Isaac, until he had to flee and 
put himself in safety from the sword of the brother whom he 
had twice offended almost unpardonably. Very slow was the 
work of grace in his heart and life; but the work was genuine 
and enduring, and at last the displeasing, crafty and querulous 
Jacob came to walk with holy calm in the light of God, and 
to depart this life in the full assurance of faith; — in the triumphs 
of a faith fully assured that all that God had promised he 
was able also and faithful to perform. It is probable that, in 
all three, the work of divine grace wrought in accordance with 
the disposition and individual character of each. Yes, it is to 



CHAPTER 50: 1—6 523 

me an unspeakable comfort that Jehovah is "the God of Abra- 
ham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob!" 

CHAPTER L. 

VRS. 1 — 6. PREPARATIONS FOR THE BURIAL OF JACOB. (1689 B. C.) 

1 And Joseph fell upon his father's face, and wept upon him, and 
kissed him. 

2 And Joseph commanded his servants the physicians to embalm 
his father : and the physicians embalmed Israel. 

3 And forty days were fulfilled for him ; for so are fulfilled the 
days of embalming ; and the Egyptians wept for him three-score and 
ten days. 

4 And when the days of weeping for him were past, Joseph spake 
unto the house of Pharaoh, saying, If now I have found favor in your 
eyes, speak, I pray you, in the ears of Pharaoh, saying, 

5 My father made me swear, saying, Lo, I die : in my grave which 
I have digged for me in the land of Canaan, there shalt thou bury me. 
Now therefore let me go up, I pray thee, and bury my father, and I 
will come again. 

6 And Pharaoh said, Go up, and bury thy father, according as Le 
made thee swear. 

Very touching are the brief and sorrowful terms that relate 
to us the grief of Joseph for the death of his aged father; 
and we may be sure that these manifestations of his affection 
were very deep and sincere: — "he fell upon the face of his 
father, and wept over him, and kissed him." The rest was 
pure ceremony; the forty days of embalming formed a portion 
of the seventy days of mourning, on the part of official mourners, 
paid or appointed for the office. Eccl. 12: 5; Jer. 9: 17, 18; 
Mark 5: 38. As Joseph was an Egyptian prince, the mourning 
for his father would be carried out in Egyptian style; and we 
are told that in this official ceremony, the mourners were 
Egyptians. Vr. 3. It is not conceivable that Joseph would 
desist from the performance of his public duties for the space 
of seventy days; but while the official mourning lasted, Joseph 
could not present himself at the court of Pharaoh; so that 
when everything was ready for the burial, he bade some of 
the house or family of Pharaoh speak for him, asking Pharaoh's 
permission that he should leave the country, in fulfilment of 
the will of his father, and of the oath which he had required 
of him, to bury him in the land of Canaan; a permission that 
Pharaoh granted at once. It seems that thirty days was the 
time of official mourning among the Hebrews, for persons of 
high rank. Thus was done the mourning for Aaron and for 
Moses. Num. 20: 29; Deut. 34: 8. The time was more than 
twice this among the Egyptians. It seems that there was no 



524 GENESIS 

official mourning for the death of Miriam, the sister of Moses. 
Num. 20: 1. 

50: 7 — 14. THE BUEIAL OF JACOB. (1689 B. c.) 

7 And Joseph went up to bury his father ; and with him went up 
all the servants of Pharaoh, the elders of his house, and all the elders 
of the land of Egypt, 

8 and all the house of Joseph, and his brethren, and his father's 
house : only their little ones,* and their flocks, and their herds, they 
left in the land of Goshen. 

9 And there went up with him both chariots and horsemen : and it 
was a very great company. 

10 And they came to the threshing-floor of Atad, which is beyond 
the Jordan, and there they lamented with a very great and sore lam- 
entation : and he made a mourning for his father seven days. 

11 And when the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites, saw the 
mourning in the floor of Atad, they said, This is a grievous mourning 
to the Egyptians : wherefore the name of it was called Abel-mizraim,f 
which is beyond the Jordan. 

12 And his sons did unto him according as he commanded them : 

13 for his sons carried him into the land of Canaan, and buried 
him in the cave of the field of Machpelah, which Abraham bought with 
the field, for a possession of a burying-place, of Ephron the Hittite, 
before Mamre. 

14 And Joseph returned into Egypt, he, and his brethren, and all 
that went up with him to bury his father, after he had buried his 
father. 

[*M. S. V., their families.] [t=Mourning f the Egyptians.] 

This narrative of the burial of Jacob is interesting; and it 
reveals to us the high esteem in which Joseph was held by 
the family (or house) of Pharaoh. A numerous cortege, com- 
posed of all the men of the house of Jacob, with the most 
distinguished individuals of the court of Pharaoh, his princes 
and the elders of his house, and all the elders of the land 
of Egypt, accompanied the body to the threshing floor of Atad; — 
a very great cortege, with chariots and horsemen. "The elders 
of Egypt" and "the elders of the house of Pharaoh," of course 
were not men of advanced age, but the words ought to be 
understood here, just as in all the Bible, as an official title 
of those who governed and exercised authority in the palace 
of Pharaoh and in the land of Egypt. See Note 22, on "the 
Elder," ch. 24: 2. These with all his princes were "the ser- 
vants of Pharaoh," of whom we read in vr. 7, and in all this 
history. 

We do not know just where the "threshing floor of Atad" 
was located; for the phrase "beyond Jordan," or "the Jordan" 
means only that it was in the land of Canaan; as the same 
phrase ordinarily signifies in the Books of Moses: "beyond," 
or "on the other side" from where Moses concluded his writincr, 
and where he died and was buried. The phrase does not imply 



CHAPTER 50: 15—21 525 

that they went around the Salt or Dead Sea, in order to cross 
the Jordan and enter Canaan on the eastern side. They; en- 
tered from the south undoubtedly, and by the same way they 
went out; and it is very doubtful, to say the least, whether 
they went anywhere near the river or valley of Jordan, where 
some would locate it. "Atad" was probably the name of the 
owner of the threshing-floor, or of the individual from whom 
it took name; just as in the case of "the oaks of Mamre." The 
land was doubtless very abundant in wheat, and would give 
ready subsistence and pasturage to the immense cortege and 
their beasts, during the seven days of mourning, and probably 
it was near to Hebron, or Mamre, where, in the cave of Mach- 
pelah, the body was deposited. The valley of the Jordan, near 
to Jericho, where many (following the opinion of Jerome), 
would desire to situate it, being from 1200 to 1300 ft. below 
the level of the ocean, would not be a suitable climate for 
wheat, nor a location for "threshing floors"; besides, that did 
not lie in the way from Egypt to Hebron. From the extra- 
ordinary mourning which they performed there for seven days, 
in addition to the seventy days of mourning done in Egypt, 
the Canaanites took occasion to call that locality "Abel-mizraim" 
—"Mourning of the Egyptians." We have occasion to congratu- 
late ourselves that the good sense of modern times has abolished 
these mournings of ceremony, which answered no other pur- 
pose than to maintain that servile and almost idolatrous respect 
with which the common people regarded the person and the 
authority of kings and of the grandees who surrounded them. 
Abraham and Isaac were buried without any ceremony worthy 
of mention; but the funeral ceremonies of Jacob had neces- 
sarily to be celebrated in Egyptian style, with great ceremony, 
and with the participation of the most distinguished persons of 
the court of Pharaoh. Once these long and tedious ceremonies 
were ended, Joseph and his brethren, and all those who had 
accompanied him to the burial of his father, returned again to 
Egypt. 

50: 15 — 21. THE DISTRUST OF JOSEPH'S BROTHERS. (1689 B. C.) 

15 And when Joseph's brethren saw that their father was dead, 
they said, It may be that Joseph will hate us, and will fully requite 
us all the evil which we did unto him. 

16 And they sent a message unto Joseph, saying, Thy father did 
command before he died, saying, 

17 So shall ye say unto Joseph, Forgive, I pray thee now, the 
transgression of thy brethren, and their sin, for that they did unto 
thee evil. And now, we pray thee, forgive the transgression of the 
servants of the God of thy father. And Joseph wept when they 
spake unto him. 



526 GENESIS 

18 And bis brethren also went and fell down before bis face ; and 
they said, Behold, we are thy servants. 

19 And Joseph said unto them, Fear not : for am I in the place of 
God? 

20 And as for you, ye meant evil against me ; but God meant it 
for good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive. 

21 Now therefore fear ye not : I will nourish you, and your little 
ones.* And he comforted them, and spake kindly unto them. 

[*M. S. V. your families; as in ch. 47:12.] 

The official duties of Joseph and his exalted social position 
had prevented there being between him and his brothers any- 
thing of the familiarity of the days of their youth; and seeing 
that their father was dead, they imagined that the great lord 
(this obstacle being once removed), would take vengeance on 
them for the evil deeds that they had done to him. As it is 
Impossible for us to believe that Jacob entertained any such 
thought and took this method of guarding against such an 
event, the message which Joseph's brothers sent to him wears 
all the appearance of an invention of their own, in order to 
work upon Joseph's feelings of filial piety, and gain more 
readily their purpose. They sent a messenger, therefore, to carry 
to Joseph, as the message of his dying father, this petition on 
their behalf. How terrible is the power of an accusing con- 
science, and how it fills the bravest heart with dread! 

"Conscience makes cowards of us all." 
During seventeen years of continual favors received from 
Joseph in Egypt, they still entertained a fear that he was 
going to punish them, having them completely in his power; 
and that only the presence of his aged father was shielding 
them from Joseph's wrath! Until then, they had regarded him 
as the great lord, and not as the loving and forgiving brother! 
Thus a corrupted and false Christianity teaches that our brother 
Jesus, bearing still "in his hands the print of the nails," Is 
an exacting and severe Lord and a rigorous Judge, and that it 
is necessary to apply to Mary and to all the court of heaven, 
in order that, through their intercession for us, he may relent, 
and grant us pardon! See Ligouri's Glories of Mary, opening 
at random, anywhere. How different is the true Christ from 
the disfigured one which Romanism offers to sinners! Joseph 
wept while their messenger was delivering the message, in com- 
passion for his brethren, and with sorrow that they should en- 
tertain such feeling with regard to him: and Jesus, too, might 
weep again, if tears could be shed in heaven, over the travesty 



CHAPTER 50: 22, 23 527 

of his dying love and his rising power, which papal Christianity 
teaches in his name! 

His brethren also followed after their messenger, and fell 
down before his face, exclaiming: "Behold, we be thy servants!" 
Joseph tranquilized their apprehension, and bade them dismiss 
their fears, repeating what seventeen years before he had told 
them, with the same object (ch. 45: 5 — 8), that God had made 
use of their wicked action in order to preserve the life of much 
people, and to carry forward his own plans of vast importance. 
Thus he consoled them with kind and tender words, and assured 
them of his love and favor. Nevertheless he was unwilling to 
weaken in them the conviction of the enormity of their sin; and 
we do very wrong if, in order to give comfort to those who 
suffer the consequences of their sins, we blot out from their 
minds the conviction of their dreadful guilt and of the danger 
which they have incurred, otherwise than through deep and 
true repentance, a thorough conversion from sin unto holiness, 
and a living faith in and following of our Lord Jesus Christ; — 
as Jesus said to the helpless cripple of thirty-eight years stand- 
ing, whom he had healed: "Behold thou art made whole; sin 
no more, lest a worse thing happen unto thee!" John 5: 14. 
Joseph did not thus do; and in saying: "Am I in the place of 
God?" he indicated that it did not appertain to him, but to 
God, to judge and punish the sin which they had committed. 

50: 22, 23. Joseph and his descendants. 

22 And Joseph dwelt in Egypt, he, and his father's house : and 
Joseph lived a hundred and ten years. 

23 And Joseph saw Ephraim's children of the third generation : 
the children also of Machir the son of Manasseh were born upon 
Joseph's knees.* 

[* = were received as his own? See ch. 30:3. A. V. and M. S. V., 
were brought. up upon Joseph's knees.] 

Joseph was 30 years old when he was presented before Pha- 
raoh and made Governor of Egypt; and dying at the age of 110, 
he lived 80 years in his high office. He saw the children of 
Ephraim of the third generation, and those of Manasseh, until 
the second. From what is said here, and in other parts of the 
writings of Moses, it seems certain that Manasseh had no other 
son but Machir, from whom were descended all the families of 
this tribe, on both sides of the Jordan. The Hebrew expression 
is a very singular one which in vr. 23 is translated in the 
English and the Modern Spanish Versions, "were Drought up 
upon Joseph's knees:" Heo. "were born upon Joseph's knees" 
as given in the text of the Revised Version. When Rachel gave 
her maid-servant Bilhah to Jacob for a wife, she said: "She 



528 GENESIS 

shall bear upon my knees, that I also may have children by her, 
Ch. 30: 3. It is not to be supposed that Rachel performed the 
office of mid-wife, and still less that Joseph did so. In both 
cases the sense is probably the same, and in the case of Joseph, 
as in that of his mother Rachel, the phrase very probably 
means, that he received them for his own. And nevertheless 
we see no reason why this should be said of the grandchildren 
of Manasseh, and not of those of Ephraim also; unless it be to 
give us to understand that Joseph, till the very last, gave the 
preference to Manasseh (see ch. 48: 17 — 20), and continued 
manifesting it in a certain way towards his lineage. Manasseh 
did not lose the birthright (Jos. 17: 1); and in the division of 
the promised land, his tribe received two portions, or "lots," 
and Ephraim only one. Josh. 17: 5, 10. It is probable therefore 
that this singular expression has in Hebrew some proverbial 
sense, and signifies that Joseph lived to receive upon his knees, 
after they were born, and cherish as his own, all the children of 
Manasseh, until the second generation; so that the text of the 
A. V. and the Modern Spanish Version give the true sense; 
whereas the literal rendering, "were born upon the knees of 
Joseph" gives a very misleading one; in seeming forgetfulness 
of the fact that the very purpose of a translation is to put the 
thought of the writer in easy reach of the reader. Machir, the 
son of Manasseh, had several sons; but he, it seems, was the 
only son of his father. The point is somewhat involved; but 
Num. 26: 29 — 34; 27: 1, and Josh, 13: 31 make clear the fact 
that the two half tribes of Manasseh, to the east and to the 
west of the Jordan, both descended from this Machir. 

50: 24 — 26. the death of Joseph, and the oath which he 
required in regard to his body. (1635 b. c.) 

24 And Joseph said unto his brethren, I die; but God will surely 
visit you, and bring you up out of this land unto the land which he 
sware to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. 

25 And Joseph took an oath of the children of Israel, saying, God 
will surely visit you, and ye shall carry up my bones from hence. 

26 So Joseph died, being a hundred and ten years old: and they 
embalmed him, and he was put in a coffin in Egypt. 

"By faith Joseph when he died, made mention of the departure 
of the children of Israel, and gave commandment concerning his 
bones." Heb. 11: 22. Joseph did not know when God would 
visit his people and bring them up out of Egypt; but he was 
fully certified of the fact itself by the promise of God, and he 
did not have the least doubt of it; so that he made the children 
Of Israel to swear that whenever the time arrived, they would 



CHAPTER 50: 24—26 529 

carry up his bones with them. He well knew that the Egyptians 
would not permit the mortal remains of the most distinguished 
of their governors to be carried out of the country, as had been 
done with the body of Jacob; and for this reason he exacted an 
oath that when they went up, they would not leave his bones 
in Egypt. When he died, therefore, his body was embalmed, to 
preserve it from corruption, as had been done with that of his 
father; but instead of being buried, as was Jacob, he was 
placed in a coffin in Egypt and kept in some secure place for the 
day of the departure of the people. That mummified body was 
for a century and a half, or as some understand it, for three 
centuries and a half, a dumb prophecy of the exodus of the peo- 
ple from Egypt, a perpetual monument of the faith of Joseph, 
and a constant awakener of the faith and hope of the people, 
"strangers in a strange land," speaking by dumb but eloquent 
signs of the promise given to Abraham that "in the fourth cen- 
tury (—after "four hundred years") they should return there." 
Ch. 15: 13, 16. In this way he, like another Abel, "by it, being 
dead, was yet speaking." Heb. 11: 4. 



Here ends this noble book, the most ancient in the world, and 
in every sense the most important, with the exception of the 
four Gospels, which recount the life, the teachings, the redeem- 
ing death, and the life-giving resurrection of Jesus Christ. It 
gives us brief, but sufficient and trustworthy information, of 
the work of creation in general, and the work of the creation of 
man in particular; of his fall, from whence come all our sins 
and miseries, and the total corruption of our nature, which in 
all ages, and in all countries, and under the most varied condi- 
tions, shows itself to be one and the same corrupt thing; of the 
deluge of waters in the days of Noah, on account of the insup- 
portable wickedness of men; of the dissemination of the nations 
after the flood; of the tower of Babylon and the confusion of 
tongues; of the incorrigible wickedness and pride of men, and 
the failure of all endeavors made to bring them back to God; 
of the consequent calling of Abraham and his descendants, and 
the abandonment of the other nations, that they "should walk 
in their own ways" and "according to the lusts of their own 
hearts." (Acts 14: 16; 17: 30, 31; Rom. 1: 24, 26) ; of the various 
steps by which God tried and disciplined this family which he 
had chosen, until he carried them down to Egypt, that they 



530 GENESIS 

might there be educated and become proficient in the arts, 
sciences, trades and industries of the most advanced civilization 
of that day, and might there increase into a nation, capable of 
taking possession of the land which he had given to their fathers; 
and there we leave them at the close of the Book of Genesis; — 
a word which means to say "The Beginning"; — the beginning of 
all things, including the beginnings of the Christian Redemption; 
having laid securely the foundation for the history of Israel, 
and of the Church of God in this world apostate from its Maker. 

End of the Genesis. 



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the reading delightful and instructive." 

El Faro (Presbyterian), Mexico City: "The book once in hand, is certain 
to be read ; for it is a book one cannot let go of. Instead of being a com- 
mentary on Genesis, it is rather an interpretation of the whole Bible. 
If we had a dozen commentaries on Genesis in Spanish, this work of 
yours would still find ready acceptance. I have not found one dull page 
in it. The author transforms the patriarchs of ancient times into men 
and women who walk and speak before our eyes. It is the best Com- 
mentary on Genesis that I have in my library." Rev. C. Scott Williams. 

La Revista Cristiana (German Evangelical), Madrid, Spain: "We ought 
to rejoice that the First Evangelical Commentary on the Old Testament 
that we have in Spanish, rises to the level of the best of those of foreign 
lands." 

El Cristiano (Presbyterian), Madrid: "With this exception [some de- 
fects of style, to be expected of one not born to the use of Spanish], we 
make our own the commendations published at the end of the volume, 
and encourage the author to go on with the work." 

El Estandarte Evangelico (Methodist), Buenos Ayres, S. A. : "This most 
precious volume is worth its weight .in gold ! It is like the sun shining in 
the firmament, which illumines the intellect, leading on to the clear and 
perfect understanding of what might be otherwise obscure and incom- 
prehensible. May it please God to preserve the life of his servant, so as 
to complete the great work he has begun, and enrich our Christian liter- 
ature with the completed Studies on the whole Old Testament !" Juan 
Robles, Spanish editor. 

Rev. A. M. Milne, General Agent of the American Bible Society for 
Argentina and the Pacific Coast (Methodist), Buenos Ayres, S. A.: "The 
Commentary on Genesis is so admirable that without doubt the publi- 
cation of it, no less, than the Modern Version itself [on which it is 
founded], will in the generations to come be looked back to as a landmark 
in the history of Spanish Evangelization." 

The Rev. Prebendary L. B. White, D.D., Secretary of the Religious 
Tract Society, London : "I have read the specimen which you sent me 
[sample pamphlet of 108 pages], and have done so with the greatest 
interest ; and feel that the work has been most carefully done, and that 
it contains teaching which is likely to be most helpful to the students of 
Scripture, and calculated to throw great light on the first book of the Bible." 

Rev. P. A. Rodriguez (Episcopalian), Tullahoma, Tenn. : "Your com- 
mentary on the Book of Genesis is very fine indeed." 

Prof. D. S. Martin, Ruling Elder of the Scotch Presbyterian Church, 



GENESIS 

New York : "I want to thank you, over and over, for your delightful book. 
I had it with me in , and read it constantly, and ever with enthus- 
iasm and profit. If I was weary and worried, and could not get my mind 
settled, I would take it up, and soon lose my petty cares in the peculiar 
atmosphere of that book — its grand outlook over the vast field of redemp- 
tion. The ancient patriarchs appeared to live and move and speak and 
think, before me, like men of today. Nothing that I ever read has so im- 
pressed me ; I prize that book exceedingly, and I do pray for you, that 
God may spare your life and strength, and supply the needed means, that 
you may give those volumes as a priceless possession to the Spanish- 
speaking nations. The work is to my mind worth any dozen commentaries 
that I know. I do feel that it is 'far and away' beyond the ordinary 
type that I have known." 

Mrs. John G. Hall (Presbyterian), Cardenas, Cuba: "Mr. Pratt's 
Notes on Genesis are so delightful to read, I trust that the Lord will give 
him strength and health to complete his grand work." 

Rev. E. N. Granados (Presbyterian), San Juan Bautista, Mexico: "I 
have read the volume through and through, and what shall I say? That 
it is precious, magnificent, most useful !" 

The Rev. W. S. Scott (Presbyterian), San Marcos, Texas: "The read- 
ing is extremely interesting, and delights the reader as if it were a novel. 
All our (Mexican) brethren are delighted with the Commentary." 

Rev. Neill E. Pressly (Associate Reformed Presbyterian), Tampico, 
Mexico: "I am greatly pleased with the work. I gave a copy to my 
native assistant, and he is jubilant. He is not going to let go of it, 
till he has read it from end to end. What a great treasure students 
of the Bible in Spanish would possess, if they had the whole Bible com- 
mented on with so great clearness !" 

Rev. A. B. Rudd (Baptist), Ponce, Porto Rico: "It is just what we need 
among the peoples who speak the Spanish tongue." 

Rev. W. A. Walls (Society of Friends), Mexico City: "In loving rev- 
erence for the Word, in clear exposition of what God does say, and in the 
omission of what, in men's opinion, he ought to have said, the Studies 
are incomparable : at least my reading has furnished me nothing equal 
to it." 

Pastor S. J. McMurry (Presbyterian), Laredo, Texas: "It is a com- 
mentary that is going to serve the Church in its missionary work for 
hundreds of years to come.' 

Rev. William Wallace (Presbyterian), Saltillo, Mexico: "I consider 
your commentary as nearly ideal as the conditions to which you address 
yourself make it possible to reach." 

Rev. Dr. II. C. Thomson (Presbyterian), Albuquerque, N. M. : "The 
work is of inestimable value. Its great superiority is seen on every page. 
The comments are most opportune, extremely clear and vigorous, and 
though readily understood, they are notably comprehensive, considering 
the brevity of the work. I trust in the Lord that he will not permit the 
enterprise to fail for lack of funds." - 



The Rev. Dr. J. Milton Greene, Superintendent of the missions of the 
Northern Presbyterian Church in the Island of Cuba, writes thus of the 
Spanish Exodus: "I wish to express, my dear Dr. Pratt, the gratitude I 
feel for the great service you have rendered to the Master's cause in the 
preparation of your Commentary on Exodus. . . . It is fine, full of 
practical instruction and deeply spiritual. There is nothing in Spanish like 
it; and I only hope that God will spare your life to show us how much 
of the very heart of the Gospel there is in Leviticus." 



SEP 4 1906 



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